LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

ROBERT  L.  CASHMAN 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/500selectedsermo11talmiala 


Dominion  of  Fashion 


AND   OTHER   SERMONS 


TITLES  OF  THE  TWENTY  VOLUMES 


Vol.  I.  God  Everywhere. 
II.  America  for  God. 

III.  The  Gospel  of  Health,  and  other  Sermons. 

IV.  Divine  Satire,  and  other  Sermons. 

V.  Gates  of  Carbuncle,  and  other  Sermons. 
VI.  The  Ten  Plagues  of  Our  Time. 
VII.  The  Christ-Land,  and  other  Sermons. 
VIII.  Wedding  :6ells,  and  other  Sermons. 
IX,  Gospel  of  the  Pyramids,  and  other  Sermons. 
X.  The  Song  of  the  Drunkards,  and  other  Sermons. 
XI.  Dominion  of  Fashion,  and  other  Sermons. 
XII.  The  Star  Wormwood,  and  other  Sermons. 

XIII.  Recognition  of  Friends  in  Heaven,  and  other  Sermons. 

XIV.  The  Sun-Dial  of  Ahaz,  and  other  Sermons. 
XV.  The  Ivory  Palaces,  and  other  Sermons. 

XVI.  Far  Lands,  and  other  Sermons. 
XVII.  Literature  of  the  Dust,  and  other  Sermons. 
XVIII.  Angelology,  and  other  Sermons. 
XIX.  A  Passion  for  Souls,  and  other  Sermons. 
XX.  Selah,  and  other  Sermons. 

For  a  Comprehensive    General    Index  to  the  entire  work  see 
Volume  Twenty,  the  last  of  the  series 


For  Contents  of  the  Twenty  Volumes,  see  advertisement 
at  the  end  of  this  volume 


5oo 

Selected-, 

Sermons 

T.  DEWITT   TALMAGE 


"Cbe  Christian  f)crald 

l^ouis  Klopech,  proprietor 
BibU  Rou8« — H.  D.  1900 — ficw  Y^'h 


bv^ 


PREFACE* 

In  opening  the  front  door  of  these  twenty  volumes — contain- 
ing over  five  hundred  sermons  which  were  selected  from  thou- 
sands of  sermons,  first  with  reference  to  usefulness,  and  next  with 
reference  to  variety — an  explanatory  statement  is  appropriate. 

Many  of  these  sermons  were  preached  during  my  pastor- 
ates in  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn  and  Washington,  and  others  in 
Europe  and  Asia  and  the  Islands  of  the  Sea.  Chronological 
order  has  not  been  observed.  Some  of  them  were  delivered 
thirty  years  apart,  a  fact  that  will  account  for  certain  dates  and 
allusions.  Some  reference  in  almost  every  discourse  will  indi- 
cate the  approximate  time  of  its  delivery.  The  pubhcation  of 
these  volumes  is  partly  induced  by  the  kindness  with  which  my 
previous  books  have  been  received  by  the  press  here  and 
abroad.  I  am  more  indebted  than  any  other  man  to  the  news- 
paper fraternity  for  the  facilities  they  have  given  me  for 
preaching  the  Gospel  for  over  thirty  years,  without  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  week,  in  almost  every  neighborhood  of  Chris- 
tendom and  in  "  the  regions  beyond  ";  and  I  gladly  avail  myself 
of  every  opportunity  for  thanking  them  and  I  thank  them  now. 

Of  the  more  than  fifty  different  books  published  under  my 
name  in  this  country  and  in  other  lands,  the  large  majority  were 
not  authorized  by  me  for  publication,  and  were  pirated.  1  knew 
nothing  of  them  until  I  saw  them  advertised.  I  have  personally 
corrected  the  proofs  for  these  twenty  volumes,  and  their  publi- 
cation is  hereby  sanctioned.  If  they  shall  alleviate  the  fatigue 
of  some  travelers  on  the  rough  road  of  this  life,  and  help  some 
to  find  the  way  to  the  sinless  and  tearless  Capital,  whose  twelve 
gates  stand  wide  open,  my  prayer  will  be  answered. 


T^-As  %uc7XLt^^ 


^*Keprinted  from  Volume  I.) 


COPYRIGHT,    1900,    LOUIS   KLOPSCH 


CONTENTS. 


DOMINION  OF  FASHION. 9 

Text  :   The  woman  shall  not  wear  that  which  pertaineth  unto  a  man, 

neither  shall  a  man  put  on  a  ivoman^s  garment  :  fot  all  that  do  so 

are  abomination  unto  the  Lord  thy  God. —  Deuteronomy  22  :  5. 

Woman's  attire  —  Fashion-plates   and   morals  —  Womanish  men  and 

masculine   women  —  Bluntness   not   a   virtue  —  Outlandish    apparel  — 

Rudeness   a  sin  —  Christianity   and   aestheticism  —  False   standards    of 

rank — The  power  of  clothes  —  Rivalries  in  social  life  —  Wrong  fashion 

incompatible  with  happiness  —  Bitterness  in  pewter  mugs  and  golden 

chalices—  Fashion  and  disease  —  Intellectual  depletion  —  Blasting  the 

soul  —  The  worldling's  death  and  doom  —  Queen  Elizabeth  of  Castile. 

THE  OLD  HOMESTEAD. 23 

Text  :  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord. —  Joshua  24 :  15. 
Busy  Joshua's  decision — What  will  relieion  do  ? — Not  wanted  if  it 
will  sour  the  bread  —  Never  paid  a  cent  to  near  a  groan  —  Isaac  Watts' 
long  stay  —  Family  prayers  in  the  old  home  —  "  Is  God  dead  ?  "  —  The 
man  who  fought  while  wife  prayed  and  children  dug  —  Talmage's 
mother's  prayer  —  Let  religion  in  at  front  door  —  The  Western  trapper 
and  the  traveler — Wanting  religion  at  a  distance  —  Talmage's  grand- 
parents at  a  revival  meeting  —  A  mother's  evening  of  prayer  —  Tal- 
mage's parents  converted  —  A  subject  with  two  arms. 

WOMEN  OF  AMERICA.  -        - 37 

Text  :  Every  wise  woman  buildeth  her  house. —  Proverbs  14  :  i. 

Woman  not  a  mere  appendage  —  The  final  creation  —  Men  supported 
by  wives  —  Marriage  of  the  vulture  and  the  dove — Civil  War  and  women 

—  Celibacy  due  to  strong  drink  —  Woman  and  music  —  Saleswomen  — 
Pottery  painting  —  Elocutionary  accomplishments  —  Things  that  a 
woman  can  do  — Virginia  Penny's  book  —  An  awful  choice  —  Two  sad 
sights — Caught  in  the  whirlpool  —  Justice  for  women  —  Christ  the 
fnend  of  women  — The  daughter  of  the  regiment. 

WORLDLY  MARRIAGES. 53 

Text  :  A  nd  there  was  a  man  in  Maon  whose  possessions  were  in  Car- 
mel ;  and  the  man  was  very  great,  and  he  had  three  thousand  sheep, 
and  a  thousand  goats. —  I.  Samuel  25  :  2. 
A  drunken  bloat — Ingratitude  to  David  —  Abigail's  unfortunate  alli- 
ance —  A  domestic  tragedy  oft  repeated  —  Poor  Madame  Roland  —  First 
requisite  in  a  husband  —  Noble  men  of  wealth  —  Advantages  of  means 

—  Infidelity  incipient  insanity  —  The  sacrifice  of  woman — -The  roue  as 
a  suitor —  Marrying  for  money  and  position  —  Launched  on  a  Dead  Sea 

—  Imprisoned  in  a  castle  —  Jupiter's  garlanded  sacrifices  —  Tragedy  in 
ducal  palaces — Why  not  marry  a  king  —  Celibacy  honored — Cleopatra 
and  Cxsar  — The  heavenly  lover. 

VOL.  XL  \ 


Contents 


PAGE. 

THE  FIRST  WOMAN. 67 

Text  :  And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  /or  food^  and 
that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one 
wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  eat,  and  gave  also  unto 
her  husband  with  her  ;  and  he  did  eat. —  Genesis  3  :  6. 
Adam's  deep  sleep  —  The   first   marriaRe  —  A  lost  world  —  Curiosity 
healthful  and  unhealthful — Ministers  and  the  mysteries  —  Inquisitive- 
ness  and  gossip  —  Sweet  fruits  and  bitter  results  —  The  cup  of  death  — 
Results  of  the  fall  —  Votaries  of  pleasure  —  Danger  ahead  —  Attractive- 
ness of  sin— Regal   influence  of  women — Charlotte   Corday  and   the 
assassin  —  Marie  Antoinette  and  the  mob. 

THE  QUEENS  OF  HOME. 7q 

Text  :   There  are  threescore  queens. —  The  Song  of  Solomon  6 :  8. 

Imperial  character  of  a  true  Christian  woman  — Woman's  superlative 
right  —  The  dying  husband  —  Woman   in  war — Cheers   for  Mrs.  Hodge 

—  Asoldier's  tribute  to  Mrs.  Shelton — Woman's  care  for  the  poor  — 
Working   in    the  haunts  of  sin  —  Talmage  in  Helen  Chalmers'   chapel 

—  No  fear  for  the  teacher  —  Begging  for  charity's  sake — No  fool's 
errand  when  _  God  sends — Woman  in  disaster — Woman's  responsive 
heart  —  Married  for  immortality  —  A  dying  man's  awful  testimony  — 
Woman  in  heaven. 

WOMAN'S  HAPPINESS. 93 

Text:  She  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she  liveth. —  I.  Timothy 
5:6. 

The  Boston  editor's  question  about  happiness  —  Life  improves  with 
age  —  Discovering  diamonds  —  Greenough  s  testimony  —  A  disappointed 
bride_ — Filial  love  called  for  —  Personal  attractions  no  foundation  for 
happiness — Beauty  not  to  be  despised  —  Hoof-marks  of  time  —  A  plain 
face_  made  beautiful —  The  soldier's  dream — Mrs.  Harris  among  the 
soldiers  —  No  lasting  happiness  in  flattery  —  Improvements  in  fashion  — 
Jewish  styles  —  Happiness  in  Christ  —  The  pearl  of  great  price  —  Dying 
Margaret  s  joy. 

A  WEDDING  PRESENT.         ......        109 

Text  :  Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land  ;  give  me  also  springs  of  water. 
A  nd  he  gave  her  the  upper  springs  and  the  nether  springs. —  Joshua 
15:   19. 

A  victory  and  its  prize  —  A  wedding  present  — The  queen  and  the 
shadowless  picture  —  George  III.  and  Hogarth  —  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
sigh  for  rest  —  Girard's  hard  toil  —  Lamb^  pathetic  reminiscence  — 
Talleyrand's  complaint  —  Religion's  nether  springs  —  The  upper  springs 
of  Heaven  —  Heaven's  welcome  guests  —  The  happy  old  man  with  the 
dropsy  — Dr.  Goodwin's  dying  acclamation  —  Crevice  glimpses  of 
Heaven  —  Dying  Florence  —  Reaching  the  Narrows  —  Disintegration 
and  destruction —Hindu  belief  about  Brahma  — The  foundation  for 
hope. 

HARBOR  OF  HOME.  -  -    '      -  -  -  -         123 

Text  :  Go  home  to  thy  friends,  and  tell  them  how  great  things  the  Lord 
hath  dotze  for  thee. — Marks:   19 

Looking  for  a  large  sphere  —  Faithful  in  small  things  —  Home  and  its 
meaning — Home  a  test  of  character  —  Philanthropists  and  Neros  — 
Audubon's  lost  work  —  Home  as  a  refuge  —  Around  the  camp-fire  — 
Better  dead  than  homeless  —  Home  a  political  safeguard  —  Corner-stone 
of  the  Republic  — Home  a  school — Building  for  the  next  generation — 
Making  home  bright  —  Talmage's  early  home  —  Heaven  our  home. 

4  VOL.  XI. 


Contents 


PAGE. 

TREATMENT  OF  PARENTS.    -   -   -   -   .   135 

Text  :  A  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother. —  Proverbs  lo  :  i. 

Parental  delight  —  Parents  sometimes  responsible  for  unfilial  behavior 
of  children  —  Atdinnerwith  four  generations — A  disagreeable  father  — 
An  untidy  grandfather — Henry  Wilson's  drunken  father — Parents' 
faithfulness  recalled  — Dying  soldier  and  the  rye  loaf  —  Hurting  the 
family  pride  —  Blotting  the  family  name  —  Son's  dissipation  causing 
parental  distress  —  When  death  is  a  mercy  —  The  defense  of  a  marble 
slab  —  A  father's  sacrifices — A  mother's  devotion  —  Talmajre's  family 
cradle  —  The  dead  mother. 

ORPAH'S  RETREAT. 149 

Text:  And  they  lifted  up  their  voices  and  luefit  again:  and  Orpah 
kissed  her  mother  in  law  :  but  Ruth  clave  unto  her. —  Ruth  i  :  14. 

Three  widows  —  At  the  parting  of  the  ways  —  Grace  often  takes  hold 
of  hard  hearts  —  Love  and  sympathy  for  all  but  Christ — -Doves  that  will 
not  come  in  —  Perishing  between  Sodom  and  the  city  of  refuge  —  Road 
to  death  not  all  easy  travelling  —  Sin's  cross  heavier  than  the  Christian's 
—  Drawbacks  in  sins'  pleasures  —  A  sepulchre  in  the  garden  —  Ahab  has 
his  Naboth — The  hand  upon  the  wall — Family  divisions  caused  by  re- 
ligious discussions  —  Jonathan  Edwards  the  good,  and  Pierrepont  the 
bad  —  The  American  Juggernaut  —  A  godly  Secretary  of  State  —  The  In- 
dian's bad  bargain  —  What  money  cannot  do — Orpah's  dread  of  hard- 
ships—  Sinful  doubt  of  God's  mercy. 

THE  BEAUTIFUL  GLEANER. 165 

Text:  And  she  went,  and  came.,  and  gleaned  in  the  field  after  the 
reapers:  and  her  hap  was  to  light  on  a  part  of  the  field  belonging 
unto  Boazy  who  was  of  the  kindred  of  Elimelech. —  Ruth  2  :  3. 
Ruth  in  the  harvest-field  —  An  ancestress  of  Christ  —  Trouble  develops 
character — The   brilliant   pastor  —  Finishing   touch    of    trouble  —  The 
changed  doctor — The  fountain  of  Hippocrene  —  Scotch  martyrs  devel- 
oped   by    persecution  —  Dark    paths    and    joyous    endings  —  Christ's 
humiliation    and   compensation  —  Luther  and   the   discovered    Bible  — 
Sickly  sentimentality  about  women's  work  —  Horace  Vere's  brother  — 
Dying  from  nothing  to  do — Madame  de  Stael  and  her  many  trades  — 
The  value  of  gleaning  —  Elihu  Burritt  and  Abercrombie. 

THE  GRANDMOTHER.         ------         179 

Text  :    The  unfeigned  faith  that  is  in  thee,   which  dwelt  first  in  thy 

grandmother  Lois. —  IL  Timothy  i :  5. 

Paul  to  Timothy  —  Woman's  influence  —  Margaret,  mother  of  crimi- 
nals—  Godly  ancestors  alive  for  good  —  Our  times  and  old  times  — 
American  women  in  1796;  in  1782;  in  1812  —  A  glorious  race  — Grand- 
mothers a  benediction  —  Living  for  all  time  —  Cradle's  beating  between 
two  eternities  —  A  powerful  river  —  The  Ceylon  column  and  the  end 
of  the  world  —  Ancestral  consecration  —  God's  long  memory  —  Dr. 
Bethune's  grandmother  —  Isabella  Graham's  letter — Grandmothers  in 
Heaven  —  Pomponius  Atticusand  his  mot  her —  Religion  a  good  heirloom. 

THE  OLD  FOLKS'  VISIT. 195 

Text  :  /  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die. —  Genesis  45 :  28. 

Centenarians  —  A  countess's  three  sets  of  teeth  —  Jacob's  bad  boys  — 
News  from  Joseph  —  Royalty  and  rusticity  —  Strength  of  parental  at- 
tachment—  Tender  sorrow  of  Talmage's  parents  —  Are  they  still  chil- 
dren?—  A  thrilling  visit  —  President    Fillmore's   father   at    the   White 

VOL.  XI.  5 


Contents 


Houie  —  Blestins  of  parental  visits — An  empress's  hint  to  her  husband 

—  Ill-treatment  of  parents  —  Last  years  of  Talmage'sfather  —  Queens 
of  self-sacrifice  —  Parental  fidelity  —  Meeting  and  greeting  in  the  palaces 
of  God. 

MARTYRS  OF  THE  NEEDLE. 209 

Tbxt:  It  is  easier /or  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  0/ a  needle. —  Mat- 
thew ig:  34. 

Camels  and  needles — Royal  needle  plyers  — Work  ablessing  to  women 

—  Why  Ashbel  Green  worked  —  What  the  women  are  taught  —  Madame 
de  Stael's  boast — Drunken  Boggsey's  death  —  Remunerative  work  not 
dishonorable  —  Idleness  a  disgrace  —  Idleness  bad  for  health  —  Woman's 
rights  in  the  field  of  work  —  Havoc  with  the  needle  —  God  to  redress 
woman's  wrongs  —  Woman  human,  not  an  angel — Worse  than  martyr- 
dom —  In  convulsions  in  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  —  The  ballot  not  the  cure 

—  Studying  to  excel  —  Oaks  and  ivies  —  The  dying. 

THE  SHEIK'S  DAUGHTER. 223 

Text  :  Now  Moses  kept  the  flock  of  Jethro  his  father  in  law,  the  priest 
of  Midian. —  Exodus  3  :  i. 
Moses  in  Midian  —  An  Oriental  well  fight  —  Industrious  Zipporah  —  A 
model  for  American  girls  —  W.  W.  Corcoran's  Louise  Home  —  Useless 
women  —  Moses  at  school  —  John's  austere  life  —  Elijah's  training  — 
John  Knox  a  French  slave  —  Earl  of  Morton's  magnificent  tribute  — 
Work  for  aged  men  —  Had  death  forgotten  them? — Gladstone  the 
great — Courage  of  Moses  —  Cheers  for  the  overcomer  —  A  call  written 
in  fire — The  two  bowls  —  Jehovah  and  his  friend  —  The  sepulture  of 
Moses. 

SPIDERS  IN  PALACES. 341 

Text  :   The  spider  taketh  hold  with  her  hands,  and  is  in  king's  palaces. 

—  Proverbs  30:  28. 

Talmage  in  Edinburgh  —  Dr.  Cook  on  spiders  — Lessons  from  things 
ordinary  —  Illustrations  from  nature  —  A  spider  in  the  palace — Exquis- 
iteness  of  divine  mechanism  —  God  through  telescope  and  microscope 

—  Insignificance  no  excuse  for  inaction  —  Doing  lowly  work  —  God's 
work  well  done  —  Loathsomeness  on  the  climb  —  Evil  in  the  church  — 
Invading  the  home — Perseverance  will  mount — Heaven  a  palace  — 
Splendor  of  apartments  —  Splendor  of  associations  —  Splendor  of  ban- 
quet—  In  the  Mammoth  cave  —  The  grave  illuminated, 

A  MOTHERLY  GOD. 255 

Text:  As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you. — 
Isaiah  66:  13. 

The  Bible  a  parental  letter  of  affection  —  More  about  mercy  than 
wrath  —  The  child  and  father  in  the  thunder-storm — Thunder  God's 
voice  —  Calm  is  God's  smile  —  God's  simple  way  of  teaching  — A  moth- 
er's patience  in  instruction  —  Spelling  faith  —  Teaching  by  pictures  — 
The  lesson  of  the  fish-net  —  The  folly  of  sinning  —  The  gladness  of 
mercy  —  The  silver  refiner's  story — The  field  and  the  farmer  —  The 
perfected  statue  — The  rocking  of  the  cradle  —  Tending  little  hurts  — 
No  ciphers  in  God's  arithmetic  —  God's  patience  with  the  erring  — Won 
by  forgiveness  —  Gentleness  of  God's  hand  —  The  sleep  of  death  —  The 
dying  Scotchman  to  his  daughter. 


VOL.  XL 


Contents 


GARRISON  DUTY. 271 

Text  :  As  kit  part  is  that  goetk  down  to  the  taitU,  to  shall  his  pari  be 
that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff. —  I.  Samuel  30:  24. 

Changing  army  quarters  —  Invalid  troops  —  Ainalekite  ravages  —  A 
maudlin  banquet  —  David's  triumph  —  Distributing  the  spoils  —  Garri- 
son duty  important  —  An  earl's  request  —  Help  for  discouraged  workers 

—  Honors  for  the  home  workers  —  Brakeman  or  director  alike  to  God  — 
Engineer  earned  gratitude  as  well  as  captain  —  Story  of  a  hymn  — 
Visiting  Napoleon  s  veterans  —  God  not  unmindful  of  his  veterans  — 
Rewards  for  Christian  wives  and  mothers. 

THE  BATTLE  FOR  BREAD. 287 

Text  :  A  nd  the  ravens  brought  hint  bread  and  flesh  in  the  morning, 
and  bread  and  flesh  in  the  evening. —  I.  Kings  17  :  6. 
Birds  in  the  Bible  —  Audubon's  delightful  studies  —  The  wren  crowned 
king  of  the  birds  —  Ravens  to  the  rescue — What  the  rabbis  said  — 
God  sent  the  purveyors  —  The  world's  great  battle  for  bread — Not 
home  rule  but  a  home  to  rule  —  God  a  sensible  parent — What  the  ravens 
did  not  bring  —  Gold  eagles  versus  black  ravens  —  Rochelle  and  its  siege 

—  A  memorable  pea  crop  —  Mr.  Birdseye  and  the  water  famine  —  Prav 
and  dig  —  Mistaking  the  color  of  Providences  —  The  lost  child  —  Gods 
abundance  of  ravens —  A  Chicago  woman's  great  faith —  Praying  for  coal 

—  Bread  for  soul  hunger. 

HEAVY  LOADS. 303 

Text  :  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee. — 
Psalm  55  :  22. 
A  burden-be-ring  world  —  Bishop  Wiley's  death  —  Talmage's  father's 
story:  trust  and  deliverance  —  A  timely  barrel  of  flour — -The  Straits 
of  Magellan  —  Contrary  winds  —  Burdens  in  business  —  Grip,  Gouge  & 
Co. —  The  drowning  young  man  and  the  bag  of  gold  —  The  Bible  as  an 
o£Fset  —  Divine  sympathy  with  the  toilers  —  Across  for  all  saviours  — 
Believing  in  universal  damnation  —  Egmont  the  martyr  and  the  loos- 
ened collar — Ill-treated  in  good  company  —  The  world  a  hospital  — 
Prayer  and  the  abscesses  —  The  burden  of  sin. 

ISAAC  RESCUED. 317 

Text:  Behold  the  fire  and  the  wood,  but  where  is  the  lamb  f  —  Genesis 
23:  7. 

Abraham  and  Isaac  — A  thunderbolt  from  a  clear  sky  —  Reaching  the 
mount  —  Isaac's  searching  question  —  Binding  the  sacrifice  —  The  lifted 
knife  —  The  divine  arrest—  The  ram  in  the  thicket_ — Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  —  The  aged  minister's  interpretation  —  Implicit  obedience  called 
for — God's  sure  help  in  extremity  —  The  restored  son  —  Carrying  an  old 
woman  upstairs  —  The  two  "Only's"  —  Isaac  and  the  wood  —  Jesus  and 
the  cross  —  Over-mastered  by  humanity's  sorrows  —  The  pigeons  at  St. 
Mark's  —  The  Gospel's  noontide  —  Come  and  feed. 

PAIN. 33T 

Text  :  Ntithtr  shall  there  b*  any  more  pain. —  Revelation  21 :  4. 

A  hot-weather  sermon  —  Sanitary  conditions  of  Heaven  —  Its  freedom 
from  pain  of  disappointment — Life's  many  extinguished  anticipations 

—  No  more  blasted  hopes  —  Weariness  over — The  holiday  approaches 

—  Poverty  over — Parting  over  —  Earth's  sad  separations  —  Wine-presses 
of  sorrow  —  Many  hand-clasps  but  none  of  farewell  —  No  more  pain  of 
bod^  —  Disease  from  cradle  to  grave  —  Pain  universal  —  Suffering  armies 

—  The  lexicography  of  pain  —  The  glad  offsetting  sound  —  Well  for- 
ever—  A  summer's  draught  on  the  Green  Mountains — A  draught  from 
the  Throne. 

VOL.  XL  7 


Contents 


PAGE. 

WHERE'S  MOTHER? 343 

Text  :   The  mother  of  Sisera  looked  out  at  a  window. —  Judges  5  :  28. 

Sisera's  mother  —  Watching  at  the  window  —  Sad  news  —  Defeat  and 
death  —  Her  court  ladies  —  God  against  Sisera  —  Where's  mother?  — 
The  great  home  question  —  An  Oriental  palace  and  its  embroideries  — 
The  Heavenly  palace  —  Striking  contrast  —  The  old-time  mother  —  Her 
multitudinous  qualifications — Mother's  influence  on  children's  char- 
acter—  The  impressive  age  —  Maternal  inconsistencies  —  The  train  and 
the  broken  bridge  —  Charlie's  letter  from  mother  —  A  mother's  selfish 
expectations  —  Praise  for  the  needle  —  Making  shipwreck  on  the  ward- 
robe—  Mothers  in  the  country  —  Terrible  news  —  What  mothers  in  glory 
see  —  Answered  once  and  forever. 

HOME-SICKNESS. 359 

Text  :  /  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father . —  Luke  15 :  18. 

The  carob  tree  —  Sin  a  mean  thing  —  A  wise  resolution  —  Seeing  a 
heretic  in  the  glass  —  Disgusted  with  his  environment  —  Sin  the  soul's 
ruin  —  Easily  proved  —  Home-sickness  sends  a  sinner  home  —  A  disloyal 
son  and  his  prayer  at  sea  —  Mourned  as  lost,  but  saved  —  Prompt  execu- 
tion—  Broken  vows  —  Story  of  two  prodigals  —  Never  got  home — Con- 
demned and  in  irons  —  Pardoned  —  A  father's  love  and  kiss. 

CONTENTMENT. 375 

Text  :  Be  content  with  such  things  as  ye  have. —  Hebrews  13  :  5. 

pff  on  vacation  —  The  many  stay-at-homes  —  American  restlessness  — 
Life's  indispensables  generally  possessed  —  Health  man's  greatest  lux- 
ury—  Hypocritical  effusiveness  over  pictures — Happiness  not  depend- 
ent on  outward  circumstances — Looking  for  the  happiest  people  — 
Growling  from  a  throne;  singing  from  a  dungeon  —  Napoleon's  disgust 

—  Shipwrecked  but  singing  —  All  over  soon  —  Royalty  as  a  fertilizer — 
Departed  greatness  —  Calling  the  roll  —  No  response  —  Kissing  the 
fagot  —  A  martyr's  joy  —An  improvident  crowd — A  glorious  vacation. 

REMINISCENCES. 387 

Text  :   While  I  was  musing  the  fire  burned. —  Psalms  39  :  3. 

A  reminiscent  Sunday  —  Sunset  at  the  Bay  of  Fundy  —  Looking  back- 
ward—  Giotto's  fresco  —  Early  home  and  its  blessings  —  Setting  up  a 
household  —  The  first  born  —  The  hour  of  conversion  —  The  shadow  in 
the  home  —  Two  cups  —  On  a  bed  of  sickness  —  Financial  trouble — ^^  Be- 
reavement—  Interval  lands  —  A  lesson  from  the  banks  of  the  St.  John 

—  Napoleon  and  Mrs.  Judson  —  Dying  utterances  contrasted  —  Paul  and 
Augustus  Caesar. 

The  following  indexes  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  each  volume: 
Index  of  Texts, 
Index  of  Titles  and  Texts, 

Index  of  Anecdotal  and  Historical  Illustrations, 
Index  of  Subjects. 


YOL.  XI. 


DOMINION  OF  FASHION 

Deut.,  22:  5:  "The  woman  shall  not  wear  that  which 
pertaineth  unto  a  man,  neither  shall  a  man  put  on  a  woman's 
garment:  for  all  that  do  so  are  abomination  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God." 

God  thought  womanly  attire  of  enough  im- 
portance to  have  it  discussed  in  the  Bible.  Paul,  the 
apostle,  by  no  means  a  sentimentalist,  and  accustomed 
to  dwell  on  the  great  themes  of  God  and  the  resurrec- 
tion, writes  about  the  arrangement  of  woman's  hair 
and  the  style  of  her  jewelry ;  and  in  my  text,  Moses, 
his  ear  yet  filled  with  the  thunder  at  Mount  Sinai,  de- 
clares that  womanly  attire  must  be  in  marked  con- 
trast with  masculine  attire,  and  infraction  of  that  law 
excites  the  indignation  of  high  heaven.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  the  morals  of  a  country  or  an  age  are  de- 
pressed is  that  law  defied.  Show  me  the  fashion  plates 
of  any  century  from  the  time  of  the  Deluge  to  this, 
and  I  will  tell  you  the  exact  state  of  public  morals. 
Bloomerism  in  this  country  years  ago  seemed  about 
to  break  down  this  divine  law,  but  there  was  enough 
of  good  in  American  society  to  beat  back  the  in- 
decency. Yet  ever  and  anon  we  have  imported  from 
France,  or  perhaps  invented  on  this  side  the  sea  a 
style  that  proposes  as  far  as  possible  to  make  women 
dress  like  men ;  and  thousands  of  young  women  catch 
the  mode,  until  some  one  goes  a  little  too  far  in  imi- 
tation of  masculinity,  and  the  whole  custom,  by  the 
good  sense  of  American  womanhood,  is  obliterated. 
The  costumes  of  the  countries  are  different, and  in  the 
same  country  may  change,  but  there  is  a  divinely  or- 
dered dissimilarity  which  must  be  forever  observed. 
VOL.  XI.  9 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Any  divergence  from  this  is  administrative  of  vice  and 
runs  against  the  keen  thrust  of  the  text,  which  says : 
"  The  woman  shall  not  wear  that  which  pertaineth 
unto  a  man,  neither  shall  a  man  put  on  a  woman's 
garment,  for  all  that  do  so  are  abomination  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God." 

Many  years  ago,  a  French  authoress,  signing  her- 
self George  Sand,  by  her  corrupt  but  brilliant  writ- 
ings depraved  homes  and  libraries  innumerable,  and 
was  a  literary  grandmother  of  all  the  present  French 
and  American  authors,  who  have  written  things  so 
much  worse  that  they  have  made  her  putrefaction 
quite  presentable.  That  French  authoress  put  on 
masculine  attire.  She  was  consistent.  Her  writings 
and  her  behavior  were  perfectly  accordant. 

My  text  abhors  mannish  women  and  womanish 
men.  What  a  sickening  thing  it  is  to  see  a  man  copy- 
ing the  speech,  the  walk,  the  manner  of  a  woman. 
The  trouble  is  that  they  do  not  imitate  a  sensible 
woman,  but  some  female  imbecile.  And  they  simper, 
and  they  go  with  mincing  step,  and  lisp,  and  scream 
at  nothing,  and  take  on  a  languishing  look,  and  bang 
their  hair,  and  are  the  nauseation  of  honest  folks  of 
both  sexes.  O  man,  be  a  man !  You  belong  to  quite 
a  respectable  sex.  Do  not  try  to  cross  over,  and  to 
become  a  hybrid;  neither  one  nor  the  other,  but  a 
failure,  half-way  between.  Alike  repugnant  are  mas- 
culine women.  They  copy  a  man's  stalking  gait  and 
go  down  the  street  with  the  stride  of  a  walking-beam. 
They  wish  they  could  smoke  cigarettes,  and  some  of 
them  do.  They  talk  boisterously  and  try  to  sing  bass. 
They  do  not  laugh,  they  roar.  They  cannot  quite 
manage  the  broad  profanity  of  the  sex  they  rival,  but 
their  conversation  is  often  a  half-swear;  and  if  they 
said,  "  O  Lord !  "  in  earnest  prayer  as  often  as  they 
say  it  in  lightness  they  would  be  high  up  in  saint- 

10  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fa&liion 

liood.  Withal  there  is  an  assumed  rugosity  of  ap- 
parel, and  they  wear  a  man's  hat,  only  changed  by 
being  in  two  or  three  places  smashed  in  and  a  dead 
canary  clinging  to  the  general  wreck,  and  a  man's 
coat  tucked  in  here  and  there  according  to  unac- 
countable aesthetics.  O  woman,  stay  a  woman !  You 
also  belong  to  a  very  respectable  sex.  Do  not  try 
to  cross  over.  If  you  do  you  will  be  a  failure  as  a 
woman  and  only  a  nondescript  of  a  man.  We  already 
have  enough  intellectual  and  moral  bankrupts  in  our 
sex  without  your  coming  over  to  make  worse  the 
deficit. 

My  text  also  sanctions  fashion.  Indeed,  it  sets 
a  fashion!  There  is  a  great  deal  of  senseless  cant 
about  fashion.  A  woman  or  man  who  does  not  regard 
it  is  unfit  for  good  neighborhood.  The  only  question 
is  what  is  right  fashion  and  what  is  wrong  fashion. 
Before  I  stop  I  want  to  show  you  that  fashion  has 
been  one  of  the  most  potent  of  reformers  and  one 
of  the  vilest  of  usurpers.  Sometimes  it  has  been  an 
angel  from  heaven,  and  at  others  the  mother  of  abom- 
inations. As  the  world  grows  better,  there  will  be 
as  much  fashion  as  now,  but  it  will  be  a  righteous 
fashion.  In  the  heavenly  life  white  robes  always  have 
been  and  always  will  be  in  the  fashion. 

There  is  a  great  outcry  against  this  submission 
to  social  custom,  as  though  any  consultation  of  the 
tastes  and  feelings  of  others  were  deplorable;  but 
without  it  the  world  would  have  neither  law,  order, 
civilization  nor  common  decency.  There  has  been 
a  canonization  of  bluntness.  There  are  men  and 
women  who  boast  that  they  can  tell  you  all  they  know 
and  hear  about  you,  especially  if  it  be  unpleasant. 
Some  have  mistaken  rough  behavior  for  frankness, 
when  the  two  qualities  do  not  belong  to  the  same 
family.    You  have  no  right,  with  your  eccentricities, 

VOL.  XI.  II 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

to  crash  in  upon  the  sensitiveness  of  others.  There 
is  no  virtue  in  walking  with  hoofs  over  fine  carpets. 
The  most  jagged  rock  is  covered  with  blossoming 
moss.  The  storm  that  comes  jarring  down  in  thun- 
der strews  rainbow  colors  upon  the  sky  and  silvery 
drops  on  the  orchard. 

Then  there  are  men  who  pride  themselves  on  their 
capacity  to  "  stick  "  others.  They  say :  "  I  have 
brought  him  down ;  didn't  I  make  him  squirm !  " 
Others  pride  themselves  on  their  outlandish  apparel. 
They  boast  of  being  out  of  the  fashion.  They  wear 
a  queer  hat.  They  ride  in  an  odd  carriage.  By  dint 
of  perpetual  application  they  would  persuade  the 
world  that  they  are  perfectly  indifferent  to  pubUc 
opinion.  They  are  more  proud  of  being  "  out  of 
fashion  "  than  others  are  of  being  in.  They  are 
utterly  and  universally  disagreeable.  Their  rough 
corners  have  never  been  worn  of¥.  They  prefer  a 
hedgehog  to  a  lamb. 

The  accomplishments  of  life  are  in  nowise  pro- 
ductive of  effeminacy  or  enervation.  Good  manners 
and  a  respect  for  the  tastes  of  others  are  indis- 
pensable. The  Good  Book  speaks  favorably  of  those 
w^ho  are  a  "  peculiar  "  people ;  but  that  does  not  sanc- 
tion the  behavior  of  queer  people.  There  is  no  ex- 
cuse, under  any  circumstances,  for  not  being  the  lady 
or  gentleman.  Rudeness  is  sin.  We  have  no  words 
too  ardent  to  express  our  admiration  for  the  refine- 
ment of  society.  There  is  no  law,  moral  or  divine, 
to  forbid  elegance  of  demeanor,  or  artistic  display 
in  the  dwelling,  gracefulness  of  gait  and  bearing, 
polite  salutation  or  honest  compliments ;  and  he  who 
is  shocked  or  offended  by  these  had  better,  like  the 
ancient  Scythians,  wear  tiger-skins  and  take  one  wild 
leap  back  into  midnight  barbarism.  As  Christianity 
advances  there  will  be  better  apparel,  higher  styles 

i*,  .  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 

of  architecture,  more  exquisite  adornments,  sweeter 
music,  more  correct  behavior  and  more  thorough 
ladies  and  gentlemen. 

But  there  is  another  story  to  be  told.  Wrong 
fashion  is  to  be  charged  with  producing  many  of  the 
worst  evils  of  society,  and  its  path  has  often  been 
strewn  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain.  It  has  set  up 
a  false  standard  by  which  people  are  to  be  judged. 
Our  common  sense,  as  well  as  all  the  divine  intima- 
tions on  the  subject,  teach  us  that  people  ought  to 
be  esteemed  according  to  their  individual  and  moral 
attainments.  The  man  who  has  the  most  nobility 
of  soul  should  be  first,  and  he  who  has  the  least  of 
such  qualities  should  stand  last.  No  crest  or  shield 
or  escutcheon  can  indicate  one's  moral  peerage. 
Titles  of  duke,  earl,  viscount,  lord,  esquire  or  par- 
trician  ought  not  to  raise  one  into  the  first  rank. 
Some  of  the  meanest  men  I  have  ever  known  had 
at  the  end  of  their  name  D.  D.  or  LL.  D.  or  A.  M. 
Truth,  honor,  charity,  heroism,  self-sacrifice,  should 
win  highest  favor ;  but  inordinate  fashion  says : 
"  Count  not  a  woman's  virtues ;  count  her  adorn- 
ments." "  Look  not  at  the  contour  of  the  head, 
but  see  the  way  she  arranges  her  hair,"  "Ask  not 
what  noble  deeds  have  been  accomphshed  by  that 
man's  hand;  but  is  it  white  and  soft?"  Ask  not 
what  good  sense  is  in  her  conversation,  but  "  In 
what  was  she  dressed?"  Ask  not  whether  there 
were  hospitality  and  cheerfulness  in  the  house,  but 
"  In  what  style  do  they  live  ?  "  As  a  consequence, 
some  of  the  most  ignorant  and  vicious  men  are  at 
the  top,  and  some  of  the  most  virtuous  and  intelli- 
gent at  the  bottom. 

During  our  Civil  War  we  suddenly  saw  men  ele- 
vated into  the  highest  social  positions.  Had  they 
suddenly  reformed  from  etM  habits  or  graduated  in 
VOL.  XI.  13 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

science  or  achieved  some  good  work  for  society? 
No;  they  simply  had  obtained  a  government  con- 
tract! This  accounts  for  the  utter  chagrin  which 
people  feel  at  the  treatment  they  receive  when  they 
lose  their  property.  Hold  up  your  head  amid  finan- 
cial disaster  Uke  a  Christian!  Fifty  thousand  sub- 
tracted from  a  good  man  leaves  how  much  ?  Honor ; 
truth ;  faith  in  God ;  triumphant  hope ;  and  a  kingdom 
of  ineffable  glory,  over  which  he  is  to  reign  forever 
and  ever.  If  the  owner  of  miUions  should  lose  a 
penny  out  of  his  pocket,  would  he  sit  down  on  a  curb- 
stone and  cry?  And  shall  a  man  possessed  of  ever- 
lasting fortunes  wear  himself  out  with  grief  because 
he  has  lost  worldly  treasure?  You  have  only  lost 
that  in  which  hundreds  of  wretched  misers  could 
have  surpassed  you;  and  you  have  saved  that  which 
the  Caesars  and  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Alexanders 
could  never  attain.  And  yet  society  thinks  differ- 
ently, and  we  see  the  most  intimate  friendships  broken 
up  as  the  consequence  of  financial  embarrassments. 
Proclamation  has  gone!  forth :  "  Velvets  must  go 
up  and  plain  apparel  must  come  down,"  and  the 
question  is:  "How  does  the  coat  fit?"  not  "Who 
wears  it  ?  "  The  power  that  bears  the  tides  of  ex- 
cited population  up  and  down  our  streets,  and  rocks 
the  world  of  commerce,  and  thrills  all  nations,  trans- 
Atlantic  and  cis-Atlantic,  is  clothes.  It  decides  the  last 
offices  of  respect;  and  how  long  the  dress  shall  be 
totally  black ;  and  when  it  may  subside  into  spots  of 
grief  on  silk,  calico  or  gingham.  Men  die  in  good 
circumstances,  but  by  reason  of  extravagant  funeral 
expenses  are  well-nigh  insolvent  before  they  get 
buried.  Wrong  fashion  is  productive  of  a  most  ruin- 
ous rivalry.  The  expenditure  of  many  households 
is  adjusted  by  what  their  neighbors  have,  not  by  what 
they  themselves  can  afford  to  have;  and  the  great 

14  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 

anxiety  is  as  to  who  shall  have  the  finest  house  and 
the  most  costly  equipage.  The  weapons  used  in  the 
warfare  of  social  life  are  not  minie  rifles  and  Dahl- 
gren  guns  and  Hotchkiss  shells,  but  chairs  and  mir- 
rors and  vases  and  Gobelins  and  Axminsters.  Many 
household  establishments  are  Hke  racing  steamboats, 
propelled  at  the  utmost  strain  and  risk,  and  just  com- 
ing to  a  terrific  explosion.  "  Who  cares,"  say  they, 
"  if  we  only  come  out  ahead  ?  "  There  is  no  one 
cause  to-day  of  more  financial  embarrassment  and  of 
more  dishonesties  than  this  determination  at  all  haz- 
ards to  live  as  well  as  or  better  than  other  people. 
There  are  persons  who  will  risk  their  eternity  upon 
one  pier  mirror,  or  who  will  dash  out  the  splendors 
of  heaven  to  get  another  trinket.  There  are  scores 
of  men  in  the  dungeons  of  the  penitentiary  who  risked 
honor,  business,  everything,  in  the  effort  to  shine 
like  others.  Though  the  heavens  fall  they  must  be 
"  in  the  fashion."  The  most  famous  frauds  of  the 
day  have  resulted  from  this  feeling.  It  keeps  hun- 
dreds of  men  struggling  for  their  commercial  exist- 
ence. The  trouble  is  that  some  are  caught  and  in- 
carcerated if  their  larceny  be  s-mall.  If  it  be  great 
they  escape  and  build  their  castle  on  the  Rhine  or 
the  Hudson. 

Again,  wrong  fashion  makes  people  unnatural  and 
untrue.  It  is  a  factory  from  which  has  come  forth 
more  hollow  and  unmeaning  flatteries  and  hypocrisies 
than  the  Lowell  mills  ever  turned  out  shawls  and 
garments. 

Few  people  are  really  natural  and  unaffected. 
When  I  say  this  I  do  not  mean  to  deprecate  cultured 
manners.  It  is  right  that  we  should  have  more  ad- 
miration for  the  sculptured  marble  than  for  the  un- 
hewn block  of  the  quarry.  From  many  circles  in  Hfe 
fashion  has  driven  out  vivacity.  A  frozen  dignity 
VOL.  XI.  15 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Taimage 

instead  floats  about  the  room,  and  iceberg  grinds 
against  iceberg.  You  must  not  laugh  outright;  it 
is  vulgar.  You  must  smile.  You  must  not  dash 
rapidly  across  the  room ;  you  must  glide.  There  is 
a  rouad  of  bows  and  grins  and  flatteries,  and  oh's 
and  ah's  and  simperings,  and  namby-pambyism  —  a 
world  of  which  is  not  worth  one  good,  round,  honest 
peal  of  laughter.  From  such  a  hollow  round  the 
tortured  guest  retires  at  the  close  of  the  evening, 
and  assures  his  host  that  he  has  enjoyed  himself. 
Thus  social  hfe  has  been  contorted  and  deformed, 
until,  in  some  mountain  cabin,  where  rustics  gather 
to  the  quilting  or  the  apple-paring,  there  is  more 
good  cheer  than  in  all  the  frescoed  icehouses  of  the 
metropolis.  We  want  in  all  the  higker  circles  of 
society  more  warmth  of  heart  and  naturalness  of  be- 
havior, and  not  so  many  refrigerators. 

Again,  wrong  fashion  is  incompatible  with  happi- 
ness. Those  who  depend  for  their  comfort  upon  the 
admiration  of  others  are  subject  to  frequent  disap- 
pointment. Somebody  will  criticise  their  appearance, 
or  surpass  them  in  charm,  or  will  receive  more  atten- 
tion. Oh,  the  jealousy  and  detraction  and  heart- 
burnings of  those  who  move  in  this  bewildered  maze ! 
Poor  butterflies !  Bright  wings  do  not  always  bring 
happiness.  "  She  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while 
she  liveth."  The  revelations  of  high  life  that  come 
to  the  challenge  and  the  fight  are  only  the  occasional 
croppings  out  of  disquietudes  that  are,  underneath, 
like  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude,  but  like  the 
demons  of  the  pit  for  hate.  The  misery  that  will 
to-night  in  the  cellar  cuddle  up  in  the  straw  is  not 
so  utter  as  the  princely  disquietude  which  stalks 
through  splendid  drawing-rooms,  brooding  over  the 
slights  and  offenses  of  luxurious  life.  The  bitterness 
of  life  seems  not  so  unfitting  when  drunk  out  of  a 

l6  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 

pewter  mug  as  when  it  pours  from  the  chased  lips 
of  a  golden  chalice.  In  the  sharp  crack  of  the  volup- 
tuary's pistol,  putting  an  end  to  his  earthly  misery, 
I  hear  the  confirmation  that  in  a  hollow,  fastidious 
life  there  is  no  peace. 

Again,  devotion  to  wrong  fashion  is  productive 
of  physical  disease,  mental  imbecility  and  spiritual 
withering.  Apparel  insufficient  to  keep  out  the  cold 
and  the  rain,  or  so  fitted  upon  the  person  that  the 
functions  of  life  are  restrained ;  late  hours  filled  with 
excitement  and  feasting ;  free  drafts  of  wine  that  make 
one  not  beastly  intoxicated,  but  only  fashionably 
drunk ;  and  luxurious  indolence  —  are  the  instru- 
ments by  which  this  unreal  life  pushes  its  disciples 
into  valetudinarianism  and  the  grave.  Along  the 
walks  of  prosperous  life  death  goes  a-mowing — and 
such  harvests  as  are  reaped!  Materia  medica  has 
been  exhausted  to  find  curatives  for  these  physio- 
logical devastations.  Dropsies,  cancers,  consump- 
tions, gout  and  almost  every  infirmity  in  all  the  realm 
of  pathology  have  been  the  penalties  paid.  To 
counteract  the  damage,  pharmacy  has  found  forthwith 
medicament,  panacea,  elixir,  embrocation,  salve  and 
cataplasm.  With  swollen  feet  upon  cushioned  otto- 
man, and  groaning  with  aches  innumerable,  the  votary 
of  luxurious  Hving  is  not  half  so  happy  as  his  groom 
or  coal-heaver.  Wrong  fashion  is  the  world's  under- 
taker, and  drives  thousands  of  hearses  to  Greenwood 
and  Laurel  Hill  and  Mount  Auburn. 

But,  worse  than  that,  this  folly  is  an  intellectual 
depletion.  This  endless  study  of  proprieties  and  eti- 
quette, patterns  and  styles,  is  bedwarfing  to  the  in- 
tellect. I  never  knew  a  woman  or  a  man  of  extreme 
fashion  who  knew  much.  How  belittling  the  study 
of  the  cut  of  a  coat  or  the  tie  of  a  cravat  or  the 
wrinkle  in  a  sleeve  or  the  color  of  a  ribbon !  How 
VOL.  XI.  17 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

they  are  worried  if  something  gets  untied  or  hangs 
awry  or  is  not  nicely  adjusted !  With  a  mind  capa- 
ble of  measuring  the  height  and  depth  of  great  sub- 
jects ;  able  to  unravel  mysteries,  to  walk  through  the 
universe,  to  soar  up  into  the  infinity  of  God's  attri- 
butes—  hovering  perpetually  over  a  new  style  of 
cloak !  I  have  known  men,  reckless  as  to  their  char- 
acter and  regardless  of  interests  momentous  and  eter- 
nal, exasperated  by  the  shape  of  a  vest-button. 

Worse  than  all  —  this  folly  is  not  satisfied  until 
it  extirpates  every  moral  sentiment  and  blasts  the 
soul.  A  wardrobe  is  the  rock  upon  which  many  a 
soul  has  been  riven.  The  excitement  of  a  luxurious 
life  has  been  the  vortex  that  has  swallowed  up  more 
souls  than  the  maelstrom  off  Norway  ever  destroyed 
ships.  What  room  for  elevating  themes  in  a  heart 
filled  with  the  trivial  and  unreal?  Who  can  wonder 
that  in  this  haste  for  sun-gilded  baubles  and  winged 
thistle-down  men  and  women  should  tumble  into  ruin  ? 
The  travelers  to  destruction  are  not  all  clothed  in 
rags.  In  the  wild  tumult  of  the  Last  Day  —  the 
mountains  falling,  the  heavens  flying,  the  thrones  up- 
rising, the  universe  assembling;  amid  the  boom  of 
the  last  great  thunder-peal,  and  under  the  crackling 
of  a  burning  world  —  what  will  become  of  the  disciple 
of  fashion? 

Watch  the  career  of  one  thoroughly  artificial. 
Through  inheritance,  or,  perhaps,  his  own  skill,  hav- 
ing obtained  enough  for  purposes  of  display,  he  feels 
himself  thoroughly  established.  He  sits  aloof  from 
the  common  herd,  and  looks  out  of  his  window  upon 
the  poor  man,  and  says :  "  Put  that  dirty  wretch  off 
my  steps  immediately ! "  On  Sabbath  days  he  finds 
the  church,  but  mourns  the  fact  that  he  must  worship 
with  so  many  of  the  inelegant,  and  says :  "  They  are 
perfectly  awful !    That  man  whom  you  put  in  my 

l8  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 

pew  had  a  coat  on  his  back  that  did  not  cost  five 
dollars."  He  struts  through  life  unsympathetic  with 
trouble,  and  says :  "  I  cannot  be  bothered."  Is  de- 
Hghted  with  some  doubtful  story  of  Parisian  life,  but 
thinks  there  are  some  very  indecent  things  in  the 
Bible.  Walks  arm  and  arm  with  the  successful  man 
of  the  world,  but  does  not  know  his  own  brother. 
Loves  to  be  praised  for  his  splendid  house,  and,  when 
told  that  he  looks  younger,  says :  "  Well,  really,  do 
you  think  so  ?  "  But  the  brief  strut  of  his  life  is  about 
over.  Upstairs  he  dies.  No  angel  wings  hovering 
about  him.  No  Gospel  promises  kindling  up  the 
darkness;  but  exquisite  embroidery,  elegant  pictures, 
and  a  bust  of  Shakespeare  on  the  mantel.  The  pulses 
stop.  The  minister  comes  in  to  read  of  the  resur- 
rection, that  day  when  the  dead  shall  come  up  — 
both  he  that  died  on  the  floor  and  he  that  expired 
under  princely  upholstery.  He  is  carried  out  to 
burial.  Only  a  few  mourners,  but  a  great  array  of 
carriages.  Not  one  common  man  at  the  funeral. 
No  befriended  orphan  to  weep  a  tear  on  his  grave. 
No  child  of  want,  pressing  through  the  ranks  of  the 
weeping,  saying :    "  He  was  the  best  friend  I  had." 

What  now?  He  was  a  great  man.  Shall  not 
chariots  of  salvation  come  down  to  the  other  side 
of  the  Jordan  and  escort  him  up  to  the  palace? 
Shall  not  the  angels  exclaim :  "  Turn  out  1  A  prince 
is  coming."  Will  the  bells  chime?  ,  Will  there  be 
harpers  with  their  harps,  and  trumpeters  with  their 
trumpets?  No!  No!  No!  There  will  be  a  shud- 
der, as  though  a  calamity  had  happened.  Standing 
on  heaven's  battlement,  a  watchman  will  see  some- 
thing shoot  past,  with  fiery  downfall,  and  shriek: 
"  Wandering  star  —  for  whom  is  reserved  the  black- 
ness of  darkness  I " 

But  sadder  yet  is  the  closing  of  a  woman's  life 
VOL.  XI.  19 


Sermons  by  T,  DeWitt  Talmage 

who  has  been  worshipful  of  worldliness,  all  the  wealth 
of  a  lifetime's  opportunity  wasted.  What  a  tragedy ! 
A  woman  on  her  dying  pillow,  thinking  of  what  she 
might  have  done  for  God  and  humanity,  and  yet  hav- 
ing done  nothing!  Compare  her  demise  with  that 
of  a  Harriet  Newell,  going  down  to  peacefully  die 
in  the  Isle  of  France,  reviewing  her  Hfetime  sacrifices 
for  the  redemption  of  India;  or  the  last  hours  of 
Elizabeth  Hervey,  having  exchanged  her  bright  New 
England  home  for  a  life  at  Bombay  amid  stolid 
heathenism,  that  she  might  illumine  it,  saying  in  her 
last  moments :  "  If  this  is  the  dark  valley,  it  has  not 
a  dark  spot  in  it ;  all  is  light,  light !  "  or  the  exit  of 
Mrs.  Lenox,  falling  under  sudden  disease  at  Smyrna, 
breathing  out  her  soul  with  the  last  words,  "  Oh,  how 
happy !  "  or  the  departure  of  Mrs.  Sarah  D.  Corn- 
stock,  spending  her  life  for  the  salvation  of  Burmah, 
giving  up  her  children  that  they  might  come  home 
to  America  to  be  educated,  and  saying  as  she  kissed 
them  good-by,  never  to  see  them  again :  "  O  Jesus ! 
I  do  this  for  thee ! "  or  the  going  of  ten  thousand 
good  women,  who  in  less  resounding  spheres  have 
lived  not  for  themselves,  but  for  God  and  the  allevia- 
tion of  human  suffering. 

That  was  a  brilliant  scene  when,  in  1485,  in  the 
campaign  for  the  capture  of  Ronda,  Queen  Elizabeth 
of  Castile,  on  horseback,  side  by  side  with  King  Fer-. 
dinand,  rode  out  to  review  the  troops.  As  she,  in 
bright  armor,  rode  along  the  lines  of  the  Spanish 
host,  and  waved  her  jeweled  hand  to  the  warriors, 
and  ever  and  anon  uttered  words  of  cheer  to  the 
worn  veterans  who,  far  away  from  their  homes,  were 
risking  their  lives  for  the  kingdom,  it  was  a  spectacle 
which  illumines  history.  But  more  glorious  will  be 
the  scene  when  some  consecrated  Christian  woman, 
crowned  in  heaven,  shall  review  the  souls  that  on 

20  VOL.  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 

earth  she  clothed  and  fed  and  medicined  and  evangel- 
ized, and  then  introduced  into  the  ranks  celestial. 
As  on  the  white  horse  of  victory,  side  by  side  with 
the  King,  this  queen  unto  God  shall  ride  past  the 
lines  of  those  in  whose  salvation  she  bore  a  part,  the 
scene  will  surpass  anything  ever  witnessed  on  earth 
in  the  life  of  Joan  of  Arc  or  Penelope  or  Semi- 
ramis  or  Aspasia  or  Marianne  or  Margaret  of  An- 
jou.     Ride  on,  victor! 


VOL.  XI.  21 


THE  OLD  HOMESTEAD 

Joshua,  24:  15:     "As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve 
the  Lord." 


THE  OLD  HOMESTEAD 

Joshua,  24:  15:     "As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve 
the  Lord." 

Absurd  Joshua  I  You  have  no  time  for  family  re- 
ligion. You  are  a  military  man  and  your  entire  time 
will  be  taken  with  affairs  connected  with  the  army. 
You  are  a  statesman  and  your  time  will  be  taken  up 
with  public  affairs.  You  are  the  Washington,  the  Wel- 
lington, the  MacMahon  of  the  Israelitish  army,  and 
you  will  have  no  time  for  religion.  But  Joshua  in  the 
same  voice  with  which  he  commanded  the  sun  and 
the  moon  to  halt  and  stack  arms  of  light  on  the  parade 
ground  of  the  Heavens,  cried  out:  "  As  for  me  and  my 
house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord." 

Before  we  make  the  same  resolution  it  is  best  for 
us  to  see  whether  it  is  a  wise  and  sensible  resolution. 
If  religion  is  going  to  put  my  piano  out  of  tune,  and 
clog  the  feet  of  my  children  racing  through  the  hall, 
and  sour  the  bread,  and  put  crape  on  the  door  bell, 
I  do  not  want  it  to  come  into  my  house.  I  paid  six 
dollars  to  hear  Jenny  Lind  warble.  I  never  paid 
a  cent  to  hear  anybody  groan.  I  want  to  know  what 
religion  is  going  to  do  if  it  gets  into  my  house;  what 
it  is  going  to  do  in  the  dining  hall,  in  the  nursery,  in 
the  parlor,  in  the  sleeping  apartment,  in  every  room 
from  cellar  to  attic. 

It  is  a  great  deal  easier  to  invite  a  disagreeable 
guest  than  to  get  rid  of  him.  If  you  do  not  want 
religion,  you  had  better  not  ask  it  to  come,  for  after 
coming,  it  may  stay  a  great  while.  Isaac  Watts  went 
to  visit  Sir  Thomas  and  Lady  Abney  at  their  place  in 

VOL.  XI.  35 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Theobald,  and  was  to  stay  a  week,  and  stayed  thirty- 
five  years,  and  if  religion  once  gets  into  your  house- 
hold, the  probability  is  it  will  stay  there  forever. 

Now,  the  question  I  want  to  discuss  is,  what  will 
religion  do  for  the  household?  Question  the  first, 
What  did  it  do  for  your  father's  house  if  you  were 
brought  up  in  a  Christian  home?  This  morning  the 
scene  all  flashes  back  upon  you.  It  is  time  for  morn- 
ing prayers  in  the  old  homestead.  You  are  called  in. 
You  sit  down.  You  are  somewhat  fidgety  while  you 
listen  to  the  reading.  Your  father  makes  no  pretense 
to  rhetorical  reading  of  the  Scripture,  but  just  goes 
right  on  and  reads  in  a  plain  way.  Then  you  kneel. 
You  remember  it  now  just  as  well  as  though  it  were 
yesterday.  If  you  were  an  artist  you  could  photograph 
the  scene.  You  were  not  as  devotional  perhaps  as 
your  older  brother  or  sisters,  and  while  they  had 
their  heads  bowed  solemnly  down,  you  were  thought- 
less and  looking  around,  and  you  know  just  the 
posture  of  your  father  and  mother,  and  brothers  and 
sisters. 

The  prayer  was  longer  than  you  would  like  to  have 
had  it.  It  was  about  the  same  prayer  morning  by 
morning  and  night  by  night,  for  your  father  had  the 
same  sins  to  deplore  and  the  same  blessings  to  thank 
God  for.  You  were  somewhat  impatient  to  have  the 
prayers  over.  Perhaps  the  game  of  ball  was  waiting, 
or  the  skates  were  lying  under  the  shed,  or  you  wanted 
|to  look  two  or  three  times  over  your  lesson  before  you 
started  for  school,  and  you  were  somewhat  impatient. 
After  a  while,  the  prayers  were  over.  Your  parents 
did  not  rise  from  the  floor  as  easily  as  you,  for  their 
limbs  were  rheumatic  and  stiffened  with  age. 

You  recall  it  all  this  morning.  A  tear  trickles 
down  your  cheek  and  it  seems  to  melt  all  that  scene, 
but  it  comes  back  again.     There  is  father,  there  is 

26  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Homestead 

mother,  there  are  your  brothers  and  your  sisters.  Was 
that  morning  exercise  in  your  father's  house  degrad- 
ing or  elevating?  As  you  look  back  now  thirty,  forty, 
fifty  years,  you  hear  the  same  prayers  —  the  prayers 
of  1830,  1840,  1850,  just  as  familiar  to  your  mind  now 
as  though  you  had  heard  them  from  lips  long  ago 
turned  to  dust.  But  all  that  scene  comes  back.  Was 
it  elevating  or  degrading? 

Do  you  not  reaUze  that  there  has  been  many  a 
battle  in  life  when  that  scene  upheld  you?  Do  you 
not  remember,  O  man,  when  once  you  proposed  to 
go  to  some  place  where  you  ought  not  to  go,  and 
that  prayer  jerked  you  back?  Do  you  know,  my 
brother,  my  sister,  reviewing  that  scene,  bringing  it 
to  your  mind  —  do  you  really  think  it  was  good 
economy  or  a  waste  of  time  that  your  father  and 
mother  spent  those  moments  in  prayer  for  themselves 
and  prayer  for  their  families? 

Ah !  my  friends,  we  begin  to  think  of  it  this  morn- 
ing, and  we  come  almost  to  the  conclusion  that  if  those 
scenes  were  improving  to  our  father's  household,  they 
would  be  improving  to  our  own  household.  They  did 
no  damage  there ;  they  do  no  damage  now.  "  Is  God 
dead? "  said  a  little  child  to  her  father.  "  Is  God 
dead?"  "  O,  no,"  he  said,  "my  child;  what  do  you 
ask  that  question  for?"  "Oh,"  she  said,  "when  mother 
was  living  we  used  to  have  prayers,  but  since  mother 
has  been  dead  we  have  not  had  prayers.  I  thought 
perhaps  God  was  dead  too."  A  family  well  launched 
in  the  morning  with  prayers  goes  with  a  blessing  all 
day.  The  breakfast  hour  over,  the  family  scatter  — 
some  to  household  cares,  some  to  school,  some  to  busi- 
ness life  in  the  city.  Before  night  comes  there  will 
be  many  temptations,  many  perils,  perils  of  misstep, 
perils  of  street  car,  perils  of  the  ferryboat,  perils  of 
quick  temper;  many  temptations  threatening  to  do 
VOL.  XI.  27 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

you  harm.  Somewhere  between  seven  o'clock  a.  m. 
and  ten  o'clock  p.  m.  there  may  be  a  moment  when 
you  will  want  God.  Oh,  you  had  better  launch  the 
day  right!  It  will  not  hinder  you,  my  brother,  in 
business  Ufe.     It  will  be  a  secular  advantage. 

A  man  went  off  to  the  war  and  fought  for  his 
country,  and  the  children  stayed  and  cultivated  the 
farm,  and  the  mother  prayed.  One  young  man  was 
telling  the  story  afterward  and  some  one  hearing  the 
story  said :  "  Well,  well,  your  father  fighting,  children 
digging  on  the  farm,  and  mother  praying  at  home; 
it  seems  to  me  all  these  agencies  ought  to  bring  us 
out  of  our  national  troubles." 

My  friends,  what  is  your  memory  of  those  early 
scenes?  Do  you  think  we  had  better  have  God  in 
our  own  household?  "  But,"  says  some  one,  "  I  can't 
formulate  a  prayer;  I  never  prayed  in  my  life."  Well 
then,  my  brother,  there  are  Philip  Henry's  prayers, 
and  McDuflf's  prayers,  and  Doddridge's  prayers,  and 
Episcopal  Church  prayers  and  a  score  of  good  books 
with  supplications  appropriate  to  your  family.  If  you 
do  not  feel  yourself  competent  to  formulate  a  prayer, 
just  take  one  of  those  prayer  books,  put  it  down  on 
the  bottom  of  the  chair,  kneel  by  it  and  then  commend 
to  a  merciful  God  your  own  soul  and  the  souls  of  your 
family.  "  But !  "  says  a  father,  "  I  couldn't  do  that 
at  all;  I  am  naturally  so  retiring  and  reticent  it  is 
impossible."  Well,  I  think  sometimes  it  is  the  mother's 
duty  to  lead  in  the  prayer.  I  say,  sometimes.  She 
knows  more  of  God,  she  knows  more  about  the  family 
wants,  she  can  read  the  Scriptures  with  more  tender 
enunciation.  To  put  it  in  plain  words,  she  prays  bet- 
ter. I  remember  my  father's  praying  morning  by 
morning  and  night  by  night,  but  when  he  was  absent 
from  home  and  my  mother  prayed  it  was  very  dif- 
ferent.    Though  sometimes  when  father  prayed  we 

28  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Homestead 

were  listless  or  indifferent,  we  were  none  of  us  listless 
or  indifferent  when  mother  prayed,  for  we  remember 
just  how  she  looked  as  she  said :  "  I  ask  not  for  my 
children  riches  or  honor,  or  fame,  but  I  ask  that  they 
all  may  become  subjects  of  thy  converting  grace." 
"  Why,"  you  say,  "  I  never  could  forget  that ;  "  neither 
could  you.  These  mothers  seem  to  decide  everything. 
Nero's  mother  was  a  murderess.  Lord  Byron's  mother 
was  haughty  and  impious.  So  you  might  have  judged 
from  their  children.  Walter  Scott's  mother  was  fond 
of  poetry.  Washington's  mother  was  patriotic.  St. 
Bernard's  mother  was  a  noble-minded  woman.  So 
you  might  have  judged  from  their  children.  Good 
men  have  good  mothers.  There  are  exceptions  to 
the  rule,  but  they  are  only  exceptions.  The  father  and 
the  mother  loving  God,  their  children  are  almost  cer- 
tain to  love  God.  The  son  may  make  a  wide  curve 
from  the  straight  path,  but  he  will  almost  be  sure  to 
curve  back  again  after  a  while.  God  remembers  the 
prayers  and  brings  the  son  back  on  the  right  road, 
sometimes  after  the  parents  are  gone.  How  often  we 
hear  it  said :  "  Oh,  he  was  a  wild  young  man  until  his 
father's  death;  since  that  he  has  been  very  different; 
he  has  been  very  steady  since  his  father's  death;  he 
has  become  a  Christian."  The  fact  is  that  the  lid  of 
the  father's  casket  is  often  the  altar  of  repentance  for 
a  wandering  boy.  The  marble  pillar  of  the  tomb  is 
the  point  at  which  many  a  young  man  has  been  revolu- 
tioned.  O  young  man !  how  long  is  it  since  you  were 
out  to  your  father's  grave?  Perhaps  you  had  better 
go  this  week.  Perhaps  the  storms  of  last  winter  may 
have  bent  the  headstone  toward  the  earth,  and  it  may 
need  straightening.  Perhaps  the  letters  may  be  some- 
what defaced  by  the  elements.  Perhaps  the  gate  of 
the  lot  may  be  open.  Perhaps  you  might  find  a  ser- 
mon in  the  faded  grass.  Better  go  out  and  look.  O 
VOL.  XI.  29 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

prodigal !  do  you  remember  your  father's  house?  Do 
you  think  that  rehgion  which  did  well  for  the  old  peo- 
ple would  do  well  for  you? 

It  seems  to  me  we  are  all  resolved  to  have  religion 
in  our  homes,  but  let  it  come  in  at  the  front  door  and 
not  at  the  back  door.  In  other  words  do  not  let  us 
try  to  smuggle  religion  into  the  household.  Do  not 
let  us  be  like  those  families  that  feel  very  much  morti- 
fied when  they  are  caught  at  family  prayers.  They 
do  not  dare  to  sing  at  family  prayers  lest  the  neighbors 
should  hear  them,  and  they  never  have  prayers  when 
they  have  company.  If  we  are  going  to  have  religion 
in  our  house  let  it  come  in  at  the  front  door. 

Some  of  our  beautiful  homes  have  not  the  courage 
of  the  western  trapper.  A  traveller  passing  along  far 
away  from  home  was  overtaken  by  night  and  by  a 
storm,  and  he  put  in  at  a  cabin.  He  saw  firearms  there. 
It  was  a  rough-looking  place,  but  he  did  not  dare  to 
go  into  the  darkness  and  storm.  He  had  a  large 
amount  of  money  with  him  and  he  felt  very  much  ex- 
cited and  disturbed.  After  a  while  the  trapper  came 
home.  He  had  a  gun  on  his  shoulder.  He  put  the 
gun  roughly  down  in  the  cabin,  and  then  the  traveller 
was  more  disturbed.  He  was  sure  he  was  not  safe  in 
that  place.  After  a  while  he  heard  the  family  talking 
together,  and  he  said,  "  Now,  they  are  plotting  for  my 
ruin;  I  wish  I  was  out  in  the  night  and  storm  instead 
of  being  here ;  I  would  be  safer  there."  After  a  while 
the  old  trapper  came  up  to  the  traveller  and  said: 
"  Stranger,  we  are  a  rough  people;  we  get  our  living 
by  hunting,  and  when  we  come  in  at  night  we  are 
quite  tired  and  we  go  to  bed  early,  but  before  we  go 
to  bed,  we  are  in  the  habit  of  reading  a  few  verses 
from  the  Scriptures  and  say  a  short  prayer;  if  you 
don't  believe  in  such  things,  if  you  would  just  please 
to  step  outside  the  door  for  a  little  while,  I'll  be  obliged 

30  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Homestead 

to  you."  There  was  the  courage  to  do  one's  whole 
duty  under  all  circumstances,  and  a  house  that  has 
prayers  in  it  is  a  safe  house,  it  is  a  holy  house,  it  is  a 
divinely  guarded  house.  So  the  traveller  found  out 
as  he  tarried  in  the  cabin  of  that  western  trapper. 
But  there  are  families  that  want  religion  a  good  way 
oflf,  yet  within  calling  distance  for  a  funeral;  but  to 
have  religion  dominant  in  the  household  from  the 
first  day  of  January,  seven  o'clock  a.  m.,  to  the  thirty- 
first  day  of  December,  ten  o'clock  p.  m.,  they  do  not 
want  it. 

I  had  in  my  ancestral  line  an  incident  I  must  tell 
about  for  the  encouragement  of  all  Christian  parents. 
My  grandfather  and  grandmother  went  from  Somer- 
ville  to  Baskenridge  to  attend  revival  meetings  under 
the  ministry  of  Dr.  Finney.  They  were  so  impressed 
with  the  meetings  that  when  they  came  back  to  Somer- 
ville,  they  were  seized  upon  by  a  great  desire  for  the 
salvation  of  their  children.  That  evening  the  chil- 
dren were  going  oflf  to  a  gay  party,  and  my  grand- 
mother said  to  the  children,  "  When  you  get  all  ready 
for  the  entertainment  come  into  my  room;  I  have 
something  very  important  to  tell  you."  After  they 
were  all  ready  for  the  gay  entertainment,  they  came 
into  my  grandmother's  room  and  she  said  to  them, 
"  Go  and  have  a  good  time ;  but  while  you  are  gone 
I  want  you  to  know  I  am  praying  for  you  and  will  do 
nothing  but  pray  for  you  until  you  get  back,"  They 
went  off  to  the  gay  entertainment.  They  did  not  en- 
joy it  much  because  they  thought  all  the  time  of  the 
fact  that  mother  was  praying  for  them.  The  evening 
passed.  The  children  returned.  The  next  day  my 
grandparents  heard  sobbing  and  crying  in  the  daugh- 
ter's room,  and  they  went  in  and  found  her  praying  for 
the  salvation  of  God,  and  her  daughter  Phebe  said: 
"  I  wish  you  would  go  to  the  barn  and  to  the  wagon 
VOL.  XI.  31 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

house,  for  Jehiel  and  David  (the  brothers)  are  under 
powerful  conviction  of  sin."  My  grandparent  went 
to  the  barn,  and  Jehiel,  who  afterward  became  a  use- 
ful minister  of  the  Gospel,  was  imploring  the  mercy 
of  Christ,  and  then  having  first  knelt  with  him  and 
commended  his  soul  to  Christ,  they  went  to  the  wagon 
house,  and  there  was  David  crying  for  the  salvation  of 
his  soul  —  David,  who  afterward  became  my  father. 
The  whole  family  was  swept  into  the  kingdom  of 
Jesus  Christ.  David  could  not  keep  the  story  to  him- 
self, and  he  crossed  the  fields  to  a  farmhouse  and  told 
one  to  whom  he  had  been  affianced  the  story  of  his 
own  salvation,  and  she  yielded  her  heart  to  God.  It 
was  David  and  Catherine,  and  they  stood  up  in  the  vil- 
lage church  together  a  few  weeks  after  —  for  the  story 
of  the  converted  household  went  all  through  the  neigh- 
borhood—  in  a  few  weeks  two  hundred  souls  stood 
up  in  the  plain  meeting  house  at  Somerville  to  pro- 
fess faith  in  Christ,  among  them  David  and  Catherine, 
afterward  my  parents. 

My  mother,  impressed  with  that,  in  after  life,  when 
she  had  a  large  family  of  children  gathered  around 
her,  made  a  covenant  with  three  neighbors,  three 
mothers.  They  would  meet  once  a  week  to  pray  for 
the  salvation  of  their  children  until  all  their  children 
were  converted  —  this  incident  not  known  until  after 
my  mother's  death,  the  covenant  then  revealed  by  one 
of  the  survivors.  We  used  to  say :  "  Mother,  where 
are  you  going?  "  and  she  would  say,  "  I  am  just  going 
out  a  little  while;  going  over  to  the  neighbors."  They 
kept  on  in  that  covenant  until  all  their  families  were 
brought  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  myself  the  last,  and 
I  trace  that  line  of  results  back  to  that  evening  when 
my  grandmother  commended  our  family  to  Christ,  the 
tide  of  influence  going  on  until  this  houfj  and  it  wUX 
never  cease, 

32  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Homestead 

I  tell  this  for  the  encouragement  of  fathers  and 
mothers  who  are  praying  for  their  children.  Take 
courage.  God  will  answer  prayer.  He  will  keep  his 
bargain.  He  will  remember  his  covenant.  O !  my 
friends,  take  your  family  Bible  and  read  out  of  it  this 
afternoon.  Some  of  you  have  such  a  Bible  in  the 
household.  I  have  one  in  my  home.  It  is  a  perfect 
fascination  to  me.  If  you  looked  at  it,  you  would  not 
find  a  page  that  was  not  discolored  either  with  time  or 
tears.  My  parents  read  out  of  it  as  long  as  I  can 
remember;  morning  and  evening  they  read  out  of  it. 

When  my  brother  Van  Nest  died  in  a  foreign  land, 
and  the  news  came  to  our  country  home,  that  night 
they  read  the  eternal  consolations  out  of  the  old  book. 
When  my  brother  David  died  in  this  city,  then  that 
book  comforted  the  old  people  in  their  trouble.  My 
father  in  mid-life,  fifteen  years  an  invalid,  out  of  that 
book  read  of  the  ravens  that  fed  Elijah  all  through  the 
hard  struggle  for  bread.  When  my  mother  died  that 
book  illumined  the  dark  valley.  In  the  years  that  fol- 
lowed of  loneliness,  it  comforted  my  father  with  the 
thought  of  reunion  which  took  place  afterward  in 
Heaven.  Dore  never  illustrated  a  Bible  as  that  Bible 
is  illustrated  to  me,  or  your  family  Bible  is  illustrated 
to  you.  Only  three  or  four  pictures  in  it,  but  we  look 
right  through  and  we  see  the  marriages  and  the  bur- 
ials, the  joys  and  the  sorrows,  the  Thanksgiving  days 
and  the  Christmas  festivals,  the  cradles  and  the  death- 
beds. Old,  old  book.  The  hand  that  leafed  you  has 
gone  to  ashes;  the  eyes  that  perused  you  are  closed. 
Old,  old  book!  What  a  pillow  thou  wouldst  make 
for  a  dying  head! 

I  believe  this  morning  that,  under  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  there  are  hundreds  of  people  here 
who  are  going  to  invite  religion  into  their  household. 
Let  religion  come  into  the  dining-room  to  break  the 
VOL.  XI.  33 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

bread,  into  the  parlor  to  purify  the  sociaUties,  into  the 
library  to  select  their  reading,  into  the  bed-room  to 
hallow  the  slumber,  into  the  hallway  to  warch  us  when 
we  go  out  and  when  we  come  in.  There  are  hundreds 
of  people  here  this  morning,  I  believe,  who  are  ready 
to  say  from  their  heart  with  the  old  soldier  of  the  text, 
"  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord." 
My  subject  has  two  arms.  One  arm  of  this  sub- 
ject puts  its  hand  on  the  head  of  parents  and  says: 
"  Do  not  interfere  with  your  children's  happiness,  do 
not  intercept  their  eternal  welfare,  do  not  put  out  your 
foot  and  trip  any  of  them  into  a  ruin.  Start  them  under 
the  shelter  and  benediction  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Catechisms  will  not  save  them,  though  catechisms  are 
good;  the  rod  will  not  save  them,  though  the  rod  may 
be  necessary;  lessons  of  virtue  will  not  save  them, 
though  such  lessons  are  very  important.  Your  be- 
coming a  Christian  through  and  through,  up  and 
down,  out  and  out,  will  make  your  children  Chris- 
tians." The  other  arm  of  this  subject  puts  its  hand 
on  all  those  who  had  good  bringing  up,  but  as  yet 
have  not  yielded  to  the  anticipations  in  regard  to  them. 
I  said  that  the  path  of  the  son  or  the  daughter  might 
widely  diverge,  and  yet  it  is  almost  certain  that  the 
wandering  one  would  come  around  again  on  the 
straight  path.  There  are  exceptions,  and  you,  my 
brother,  might  be  the  exception.  You  have  curved 
out  long  enough;  it  is  time  to  curve  in.  Would  it  not 
be  awful  after  all  the  prayers  offered  for  your  salva- 
tion, if  you  missed  Heaven?  If  your  parents  prayed 
for  you  twenty  years  and  they  offered  two  prayers  a 
day  for  twenty  years,  that  would  make  twenty-nine 
thousand  two  hundred  prayers  for  you.  Those  twenty- 
nine  thousand  two  hundred  prayers  are  either  the 
mountain  over  which  you  will  climb  into  Heaven,  or 

34  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Homestead 

they  will  be  an  avalanche  coming  down  upon  your 
soul. 

By  the  cradle  that  rocked  your  childhood  with  the 
foot  that  long  ceased  to  move;  by  the  crib  in  which 
your  children  sleep  night  by  night  under  God's  pro- 
tecting care;  by  the  two  graves  in  which  the  two  old 
hearts  are  resting,  the  two  hearts  that  beat  with  love 
toward  you  since  before  you  were  born;  by  the  two 
graves  in  which  you,  the  now  living  father  and  mother, 
will  soon  repose,  I  urge  you  to  faithfulness. 

O!  thou  glorified  Christian  ancestry.  Bend  from 
the  skies  to-day  and  give  new  emphasis  to  what  you 
told  us  once  with  tears  and  many  anxieties.  Keep  a 
place  for  us  by  your  blissful  side,  for  to-day  in  the 
presence  of  earth  and  Heaven  and  hell,  and  by  the  help 
of  the  cross,  and  amid  these  overwhelming  and  gra- 
cious memories  we  all  resolve,  each  one  for  himself 
and  for  his  loved  ones :  "  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we 
will  serve  the  Lord."  May  the  Lord  God  of  Joshua 
have  mercy  on  us! 


VOL.  XI.  35 


WOMEN  OF  AMERICA 

Prov.,  14:  I :    "  Every  wise  woman  buildeth  her  house." 


WOMEN  OF  AMERICA 

Prov.,  14:  I :    "  Every  wise  woman  buildeth  her  house." 

Woman  a  mere  adjunct  to  man,  an  appendix  to 
the  masculine  volume,  an  appendage,  a  sort  of  after- 
thought, something  thrown  in  to  make  things  even 
—  that  is  the  heresy  entertained  and  implied  by  some 
men.  Woman's  insignificance,  as  compared  to  man, 
is  evident  to  them,  because  Adam  was  first  created, 
and  then  Eve.  They  do  not  read  the  whole  story, 
or  they  would  find  that  the  porpoise  and  the  bear 
and  the  hawk  were  created  before  Adam,  so  that  this 
argument,  drawn  from  priority  of  creation,  might 
prove  that  the  sheep  and  the  dog  were  greater  than 
rfian.  No.  Woman  was  an  independent  creation, 
and  was  intended,  if  she  chose,  to  live  alone,  to  walk 
alone,  act  alone,  think  alone,  and  fight  her  battles 
alone.  The  Bible  says  it  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone,  but  never  says  it  is  not  good  for  woman  to 
be  alone;  and  the  simple  fact  is,  that  many  women 
who  are  harnessed  for  life  in  the  marriage  relation 
would  be  a  thousand-fold  better  ofif  if  they  were  alone. 

Who  are  these  men  who,  year  after  year,  hang 
around  hotels  and  engine-houses  and  theatre  doors, 
and  come  in  and  out  to  bother  busy  clerks  and  mer- 
chants and  mechanics,  doing  nothing,  when  there  is 
plenty  to  do?  They  are  men  supported  by  their 
wives  and  mothers.  If  the  statistics  of  any  of  our 
cities  could  be  taken  on  this  subject,  you  would  find 
that  a  vast  multitude  of  women  not  only  support 
themselves,  but  support  masculines  too.  A  great 
legion  of  men  amount  to  nothing,  and  a  woman, 
VOL.  XI.  .  39 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

manacled  by  marriage  to  one  of  these  nonentities, 
needs  condolence.  A  woman  standing  outside  the 
marriage  relation  is  several  hundred  thousand  times 
better  off  than  a  woman  badly  married.  Many  a 
bride,  instead  of  a  wreath  of  orange  blossoms,  might 
more  properly  wear  a  bunch  of  nettles  and  night- 
shade, and,  instead  of  the  wedding  march,  a  more 
appropriate  tune  would  be  the  dead  march  in  Saul, 
and,  instead  of  a  banquet  of  confectionery  and  ices, 
there  might  be  more  appropriately  spread  a  table 
covered  with  apples  of  Sodom,  which  are  outside 
fair  and  inside  ashes. 

Many  an  attractive  woman,  of  good,  sound  sense 
in  other  things,  has  married  one  of  these  men  to 
reform  him.  What  was  the  result?  Like  when  a 
dove,  noticing  that  a  vulture  was  rapacious  and  cruel, 
set  about  to  reform  it,  and  said :  "  I  have  a  mild  dis- 
position, and  I  like  peace,  and  was  brought  up  in 
the  quiet  of  a  dove-cote,  and  I  will  bring  the  vulture 
to  the  same  liking  by  marrying  him."  So,  one  day, 
after  the  vulture  declared  he  would  give  up  his  car- 
nivorous habits  and  cease  longing  for  blood  of  flock 
and  herd,  at  an  altar  of  rock  covered  with  moss  and 
lichen,  the  twain  were  married,  a  bald-headed  eagle 
officiating,  the  vulture  saying :  "  With  all  my  do- 
minion of  earth  and  sky,  I  thee  endow,  and  promise 
to  love  and  cherish  till  death  do  us  part."  But  one 
day  the  dove  in  her  fright,  saw  the  vulture  busy  at  a 
carcass,  and  cried :  "  Stop  that !  did  you  not  promise 
me  that  you  would  quit  your  carnivorous  and  filthy 
habits  if  I  married  you?"  "Yes,"  said  the  vulture, 
"  but  if  you  do  not  like  my  way,  you  can  leave,"  and 
with  one  angry  stroke  of  the  beak,  and  another  fierce 
clutch  of  claw,  the  vulture  left  the  dove  eyeless  and 
wingless  and  Hfeless.  And  a  flock  of  robins  flying 
past,  cried  to  each  other,  and  said :  "  See  there  I  that 

40  VOL.  XI. 


Women  of  America 

comes  from  a  dove's  marrying  a  vulture  to  reform 
him."  Many  a  woman  who  has  had  the  hand  of  a 
young  inebriate  offered,  but  dedined  it,  or  who  was 
asked  to  chain  her  Hfe  to  a  man  selfish  or  of  bad 
temper,  and  refused  the  shackles,  will  bless  God 
throughout  all  eternity  that  she  escaped  that  earthly 
pandemonium. 

Besides  all  this,  in  our  country  about  one  million 
men  were  sacrificed  in  our  Civil  War,  and  that  de- 
creed a  million  women  to  celibacy.  Besides  that, 
since  the  war,  several  armies  of  men  as  large  as  the 
Federal  and  Confederate  armies  put  together,  have 
fallen  under  malt  liquors  and  distilled  spirits,  so  full 
of  poisoned  ingredients  that  the  work  was  done  more 
rapidly,  and  the  victims  fell  while  yet  young.  And 
if  fifty  thousand  men  are  destroyed  every  year  by 
strong  drink  before  marriage,  that  makes  in  the 
twenty-three  years  since  the  war  one  million  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  slain,  and  decrees 
one  milHon  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  women 
to  celibacy.  Take,  then,  the  fact  that  so  many  women 
are  unhappy  in  their  marriage,  and  the  fact  that  the 
slaughter  of  two  million  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand men,  by  war  and  rum  combined,  decides  that 
at  least  that  number  of  women  shall  be  unaffianced 
for  life,  my  text  comes  in  with  a  cheer  and  a  potency 
and  appropriateness  that  I  never  saw  in  it  before 
when  it  says :  "  Every  wise  woman  buildeth  her 
house ;  "  that  is,  let  woman  be  her  own  architect,  lay 
out  her  own  plans,  be  her  own  supervisor,  achieve 
her  own  destiny. 

In  addressing  these  women  who  will  have  to  fight 
the  battle  alone,  I  congratulate  you  on  your  happy 
escape.  Rejoice  forever  that  you  will  not  have  to 
navigate  the  faults  of  the  other  sex,  when  you  have 
faults  enough  of  your  own.  Think  of  the  bereave- 
voL.  XI.  41 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ments  you  avoid,  of  the  risks  of  unassimilated  temper 
which  you  will  not  have  to  run,  of  the  cares  you  will 
never  have  to  carry,  and  of  the  opportunity  of  out- 
side usefulness  from  which  marital  life  would  have 
partially  debarred  you,  and  that  you  are  free  to  go 
and  come  as  one  who  has  the  responsibiUties  of  a 
household  can  seldom  be.  God  has  not  given  you 
a  hard  lot,  as  compared  with  your  sisters.  When 
young  women  shall  make  up  their  minds  at  the  start 
that  masculine  companionship  is  not  a  necessity  in 
order  to  happiness,  and  that  there  is  a  strong  proba- 
bility that  they  will  have  to  fight  the  battle  of  life 
alone,  they  will  be  getting  the  timber  ready  for  their 
own  fortune,  and  their  saw  and  ax  and  plane  sharp- 
ened for  its  construction,  since  "  Every  wise  woman 
buildeth  her  house." 

As  no  boy  ought  to  be  brought  up  without  learn- 
ing some  business  at  which  he  could  earn  a  liveli- 
hood, so  no  girl  ought  to  be  brought  up  without 
learning  the  science  of  self-support.  The  difficulty 
is  that  many  a  family  goes  sailing  on  the  high  tides 
of  success,  and  the  husband  and  father  depends  on 
his  own  health  and  acumen  for  the  welfare  of  his 
household,  but  one  day  he  gets  his  feet  wet,  and  in 
three  days  pneumonia  has  closed  his  life,  and  the 
daughters  are  turned  out  on  a  cold  world  to  earn 
bread,  and  there  is  nothing  practical  that  they  can  do. 
The  friends  come  in  and  hold  consultation.  "  Give 
music  lessons,"  says  an  outsider.  Yes ;  that  is  a  use- 
ful calling,  and  if  you  have  great  genius  for  it,  go  on 
in  that  direction.  But  there  are  enough  music  teach- 
ers now  starving  to  death  in  all  our  towns  and  cities 
to  occupy  all  the  piano  stools  and  sofas  and  chairs 
and  front-door  steps  of  the  city.  Besides  that,  the 
daughter  has  been  playing  only  for  amusement,  and 
is  only  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  to  the  top  of  which 

42  VOL.  XI. 


Women  of  America 

a  great  many  masters  on  piano  and  harp  and  flute 
and  organ  have  climbed.  "  Put  the  bereft  daughters 
as  saleswomen  in  stores,"  says  another  adviser.  But 
there  they  must  compete  with  salesmen  of  long  ex- 
perience, or  with  men  who  have  served  an  apprentice- 
ship in  commerce  and  who  began  as  shop  boys  at 
ten  years  of  age.  Some  kind-hearted  drygoods  man, 
having  known  the  father,  now  gone,  says :  "  We  are 
not  in  need  of  any  more  help  just  now,  but  send  your 
daughters  to  my  store,  and  I  will  do  as  well  by  them 
as  possible."  Very  soon  the  question  comes  up, 
Why  do  not  the  female  employees  of  that  establish- 
ment get  as  much  wages  as  the  male  employees  ?  For 
the  simple  reason,  in  many  cases,  the  females  were 
suddenly  flung  by  misfortune  behind  that  counter, 
while  the  males  have  from  the  day  they  left  the  pubUc 
school  been  learning  the  business. 

How  is  this  evil  to  be  cured?  Start  clear  back 
in  the  homestead  and  teach  your  daughters  that  life 
is  an  earnest  thing,  and  that  there  is  a  possibiUty, 
if  not  a  strong  probability,  that  they  will  have  to  fight 
the  battle  of  life  alone.  Let  every  father  and  mother 
say  to  their  daughters :  "  Now,  what  would  you  do 
for  a  livelihood  if  what  I  now  own  were  swept  away 
by  financial  disaster,  or  old  age,  or  death  should  end 
my  career?"  "Well,  I  could  paint  on  pottery  and 
do  such  decorative  work."  Yes;  that  is  beautiful, 
and  if  you  have  genius  for  it  go  on  in  that  direction. 
But  there  are  enough  busy  at  that  now  to  make  a 
line  of  decorated  hardware  from  here  to  the  East 
River  and  across  the  bridge.  "  Well,  I  could  make 
recitations  in  public  and  earn  my  living  as  a  drama- 
tist ;  I  could  render  *  King  Lear '  or  '  Macbeth '  till 
your  hair  would  rise  on  end,  or  give  you  '  Sheridan's 
Ride  '  or  Dickens's  '  Pickwick.'  "  Yes ;  that  is  a  beau- 
tiful art,  but  ever  and  anon,  as  now,  there  is  an  epi- 

VOL.  XI.  43 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

demic  of  dramatization  that  makes  hundreds  of  house- 
holds nervous  with  the  cries  and  shrieks  and  groans 
of  young  tragediennes  dying  in  the  fifth  act,  and  the 
trouble  is  that  while  your  friends  would  like  to  hear 
you,  and  really  think  that  you  could  surpass  Ristori 
and  Charlotte  Cushman  and  Fanny  Kemble  of  the 
past,  to  say  nothing  of  the  present,  you  could  not,  in 
the  way  of  living,  in  ten  years  earn  ten  cents. 

My  advice  to  all  girls  and  all  unmarried  women, 
whether  in  affluent  homes  or  in  homes  where  most 
stringent  economies  are  grinding,  is  to  learn  to  do 
some  kind  of  work  that  the  world  must  have  while 
the  world  stands,  I  am  glad  to  see  a  marvelous 
change  for  the  better,  and  that  women  have  found 
out  that  there  are  hundreds  of  practical  things  that 
a  woman  can  do  for  a  living  if  she  begins  soon 
enough,  and  that  men  have  been  compelled  to  admit 
it.  You  and  I  can  remember  when  the  majority  of 
occupations  were  thought  inappropriate  for  women; 
but  our  Civil  War  came,  and  the  hosts  of  men  went 
forth  from  North  and  South;  and  to  conduct  the 
business  of  our  cities  during  the  patriotic  absence, 
women  were  demanded  by  the  tens  of  thousands  to 
take  the  vacant  places;  and  multitudes  of  women, 
who  had  been  hitherto  supported  by  fathers  and 
brothers  and  sons,  were  compelled  from  that  time 
to  take  care  of  themselves.  From  that  time  a  mighty 
change  took  place  favorable  to  the  employment  of 
females. 

Among  the  occupations  appropriate  for  woman 
I  place  the  following,  into  many  of  which  she  has 
already  entered,  and  all  the  others  she  will  enter: 
Stenography,  and  you  may  find  her  at  nearly  all  the 
reportorial  stands  in  your  educational,  political  and 
religious  meetings.     Savings  banks,  the  work  clean 

44  VOL.  XI. 


Women  of  America 

and  honorable,  and  who  so  great  a  right  to  toil  there, 
for  a  woman  founded  the  first  savings  bank  —  Mrs. 
Priscilla  Wakefield  ?  Copyists,  and  there  is  hardly  a 
professional  man  that  does  not  need  the  service  of 
her  penmanship;  and,  as  amanuensis,  many  of  the 
greatest  books  of  our  day  have  been  dictated  for  her 
writing.  There  they  are  as  florists  and  confectioners 
and  music  teachers  and  bookkeepers,  for  which  they 
are  specially  qualified  by  patience  and  accuracy;  and 
wood-engraving,  in  which  the  Cooper  Institute  has 
turned  out  so  many  qualified;  and  telegraphy,  for 
which  she  is  specially  prepared,  as  thousands  of  the 
telegraphic  offices  will  testify.  Photography,  and  in 
nearly  all  our  estabHshments  they  may  be  found  there 
at  cheerful  work.  As  workers  in  ivory  and  gutta 
percha  and  gum  elastic  and  tortoise-shell  and  gilding, 
and  in  chemicals,  in  porcelain,  in  terra  cotta,  in  em- 
broidery. As  postmistresses,  and  the  President  is 
giving  them  appointments  all  over  the  land.  As  keep- 
ers of  lighthouses,  many  of  them,  if  they  had  the 
chance,  ready  to  do  as  brave  a  thing  with  oar  and 
boat  as  did  Ida  Lewis  and  Grace  Darling.  As  proof- 
readers, as  translators,  as  modelers,  as  designers,  as 
draughtswomen,  as  lithographers,  as  teachers  in 
schools  and  seminaries,  for  which  they  are  especially 
endowed,  the  first  teacher  of  every  child,  by  divine 
arrangement,  being  a  woman.  As  physicians,  having 
graduated  after  a  regular  course  of  study  from  the 
female  colleges  of  our  large  cities,  where  they  get 
as  scientific  and  thorough  preparation  as  any  doctors 
ever  had,  and  go  forth  to  a  work  which  no  one  but 
women  could  so  appropriately  and  delicately  do.  On 
the  lecturing  platform ;  for  you  know  the  brilliant 
success  of  Mrs.  Livermore  and  Mrs.  Hallowell  and 
Miss  Willard  and  Mrs.  Lathrop.  As  physiological 
VOL.  XI.  45 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

lecturers  to  their  own  sex,  for  which  service  there  is 
a  demand  appalHng  and  terrific.  As  preachers  of  the 
Gospel,  and  all  the  protests  of  ecclesiastical  courts 
cannot  hinder  them,  for  they  have  a  pathos  and  a 
power  in  their  religious  utterances  that  men  can  never 
reach.  Witness  all  those  who  have  heard  their 
mother  pray. 

O  young  women  of  America!  as  many  of  you 
will  have  to  fight  your  own  battles  alone,  do  not 
wait  until  you  are  flung  of  disaster,  and  your  father 
is  dead,  and  all  the  resources  of  your  family  have 
been  scattered;  but  now,  while  in  a  good  house  and 
environed  by  all  prosperities,  learn  how  to  do  some 
kind  of  work  that  the  world  must  have  as  long  as 
the  world  stands.  Turn  your  attention  from  the  em- 
broidery of  fine  sHppers,  of  which  there  is  a  surplus, 
and  make  a  useful  shoe.  Expend  the  time  in  which 
you  adorn  a  cigar-case  in  learning  how  to  make  a 
good,  honest  loaf  of  bread.  Turn  your  attention 
from  the  making  of  flimsy  nothings  to  the  manu- 
facturing of  important  somethings. 

Much  of  the  time  spent  in  young  ladies'  semi- 
naries in  studying  what  are  called  the  "  higher 
branches,"  might  better  be  expended  in  teaching  them 
something  by  which  they  could  support  themselves. 
If  you  are  going  to  be  teachers,  or  if  you  have  so 
much  assured  wealth  that  you  can  always  dwell  in 
those  high  regions,  trigonometry  of  course,  meta- 
physics of  course,  Latin  and  Greek  and  German 
and  French  and  Italian  of  course,  and  a  hundred 
other  things  of  course;  but  if  you  are  not  expecting 
to  teach,  and  your  wealth  is  not  established  beyond 
misfortune,  after  you  have  learned  the  ordinary 
branches,  take  hold  of  that  kind  of  study  that  will  pay 
in  dollars  and  cents  in  case  you  are  thrown  on  your 

46  VOL.  XI. 


Women  of  America 

own  resources.  Learn  to  do  something  better  than 
anybody  else.  Buy  Virginia  Penny's  book,  entitled 
The  Employment  of  Women,  and  learn  there  are 
five  hundred  ways  in  which  a  woman  may  earn  a 
living. 

"  No,  no !  "  says  some  young  woman,  "  I  will  not 
undertake  anything  so  unromantic  and  commonplace 
as  that.  An  excellent  author  writes  that  after  he  had, 
in  a  book,  argued  for  efficiency  in  womanly  work  in 
order  to  success,  and  positive  apprenticeship  by  way 
of  preparation,  a  prominent  chemist  advertised  that 
he  would  teach  a  class  of  women  to  become  drug- 
gists and  apothecaries  if  they  would  go  through  an 
apprenticeship  as  men  do;  and  a  printer  advertised 
that  he  would  take  a  class  of  women  to  learn  the 
printer's  trade  if  they  would  go  through  an  appren- 
ticeship as  men  do :  and  how  many,  according  to  the 
account  of  the  authoress,  do  you  suppose  applied  to 
become  skilled  in  the  druggist  business  and  printing 
business  ?  Not  one !  One  young  woman  said  she 
would  be  willing  to  try  the  printing  business  for  six 
months,  but  by  that  time  her  elder  sister  would  be 
married  and  then  her  mother  would  want  her  at  home. 
My  sister,  it  will  be  skilled  labor  by  which  women  will 
finally  triumph. 

"  But,"  you  ask,  "  what  would  my  father  and 
mother  say  if  they  saw  I  was  doing  such  unfashion- 
able work  ?  "  Throw  the  whole  responsibility  upon 
this  preacher,  who  is  constantly  hearing  of  young 
women  in  all  these  cities,  who,  unqualified  by  their 
previous  luxurious  surroundings  for  the  awful  strug- 
gle of  life  into  which  they  have  been  suddenly  hurled, 
seemed  to  have  nothing  left  them  but  a  choice  be- 
tween starvation  and  moral  ruin.  There  they  go  along 
the  street  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  wintry  mornings, 

VOL.  XI.  47 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage , 

through  the  slush  and  storm,  to  the  place  where  they 
shall  earn  only  half  enough  for  subsistence,  the  daugh- 
ters of  once-prosperous  merchants,  lawyers,  clergy- 
men, artists,  bankers  and  capitalists,  who  brought  up 
their  children  under  the  infernal  delusion  that  it  was 
not  high-toned  for  women  to  learn  a  profitable  call- 
ing. Young  women !  take  this  affair  in  your  own 
hand,  and  let  there  be  an  insurrection  in  all  prosper- 
ous families  of  Christendom  on  the  part  of  the  daugh- 
ters of  this  day,  demanding  knowledge  in  occupations 
and  styles  of  business  by  which  they  may  be  their 
own  defense  and  their  own  support  if  all  fatherly  and 
husbandly  and  brotherly  hands  forever  fail  them.  I 
have  seen  two  sad  sights  —  the  one  a  woman  in  all 
the  glory  of  her  young  Ufe,  stricken  by  disease,  and 
in  a  week  lifeless  in  a  home  of  which  she  had  been 
the  pride.  As  her  hands  were  folded  over  the  still 
heart  and  her  eyes  closed  for  the  last  slumber,  and 
she  was  taken  out  amid  the  lamentations  of  kindred 
and  friends,  I  thought  that  was  a  sadness  immeasur- 
able. But  I  have  seen  something  compared  with 
which  that  scene  was  bright  and  songful.  It  was  a 
young  woman  who  had  been  all  her  days  amid 
wealthy  surroundings,  by  the  visit  of  death  and  bank- 
ruptcy to  the  household  turned  out  on  a  cold  world 
without  one  lesson  about  how  to  get  food  or  shelter, 
and  into  the  awful  whirlpool  of  city  life,  where  strong 
ships  have  gone  down,  and  for  twenty  years  not  one 
word  has  been  heard  from  her.  Vessels  last  week 
went  out  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean  looking  for  a  ship- 
wrecked craft  that  was  left  alone  and  forsaken  on 
the  sea  a  few  weeks  ago,  with  the  idea  of  bringing  it 
into  port.  But  who  shall  ever  bring  again  into  the 
harbor  of  peace  and  hope  and  heaven  that  lost  im- 
mortal woman,  driven  in  what  tempest,  aflame  in  what 

48  VOL    XI. 


Women  of  America 

conflagration,  sinking  into  what  abyss?       O   God, 
help!     O  Christ,  rescue! 

My  sisters,  give  not  your  time  to  learning  fancy 
work  which  the  world  may  dispense  with  in  hard 
times,  but  connect  your  skill  with  the  indispensables 
of  life.  The  world  will  always  want  something  to 
wear  and  something  to  eat,  and  shelter  and  fuel  for 
the  body,  and  knowledge  for  the  mind,  and  religion 
for  the  soul.  And  all  these  things  will  continue  to 
be  the  necessaries,  and  if  you  fasten  your  energies 
upon  occupations  and  professions  thus  related,  the 
world  will  be  unable  to  do  without  you.  Remember, 
that  in  proportion  as  you  are  skilful  in  anything, 
your  rivalries  become  less.  For  unskilled  toil,  women 
by  the  million.  But  you  may  rise  to  where  there  are 
only  a  thousand ;  and  still  higher,  till  there  are  only  a 
hundred;  and  still  higher,  till  there  are  only  ten; 
and  still  higher,  in  some  particular  department,  till 
there  is  only  a  unit,  and  that  yourself.  For  a  while 
you  may  keep  wages  and  a  place  through  the  kindly 
sympathies  of  an  employer,  but  you  will  eventually 
get  no  more  compensation  than  you  can  make  your- 
self worth. 

Let  me  say  to  all  women  who  have  already  en- 
tered upon  the  battle  of  life,  that  the  time  is  coming 
when  woman  shall  not  only  get  as  much  salary  and 
wages  as  men  get,  but  for  certain  styles  of  employ- 
ment will  have  higher  salary  and  more  wages,  for  the 
reason  that  for  some  styles  of  work  they  have  more 
adaptation.  But  this  justice  will  come  to  woman, 
not  through  any  sentiment  of  gallantry,  not  because 
woman  is  physically  weaker  than  man,  and,  there- 
fore, ought  to  have  more  consideration  shown  her, 
but  because  through  her  finer  natural  taste  and  more 
grace  of  manner  and  quicker  perception,  and  more 
VOL.  XI.  49 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

delicate  touch  and  more  educated  adroitness,  she 
will,  in  certain  callings,  be  to  her  employer  worth 
ten  per  cent,  more  or  twenty  per  cent,  more  than 
the  other  sex.  She  will  not  get  it  by  asking  for  it, 
but  by  earning  it,  and  it  shall  be  hers  by  lawful 
conquest. 

Now,  men  of  America,  be  fair,  and  give  the  women 
a  chance.  Are  you  afraid  that  they  will  do  some  of 
your  work,  and  hence  harm  your  prosperities?  Re- 
member that  there  are  scores  of  thousands  of  men 
doing  women's  work.  Do  not  be  afraid!  God 
knows  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  he  knows 
how  many  people  this  world  can  feed  and  shelter, 
and  when  it  gets  too  full  he  will  end  the  world,  and, 
if  need  be,  start  another.  God  will  halt  the  inventive 
faculty,  which,  by  producing  a  machine  that  will  do 
the  work  of  ten  or  twenty  or  a  hundred  men  and 
women,  will  leave  that  number  of  people  without 
work.  I  hope  that  there  will  not  be  invented  an- 
other sewing  machine  or  reaping  machine  or  corn- 
thresher  or  any  other  new  machine  for  the  next 
five  hundred  years.  We  want  no  more  wooden 
hands  and  iron  hands  and  steel  hands  and  electric 
hands  substituted  for  men  and  women,  who  would 
otherwise  do  the  work  and  get  the  pay  and  earn  the 
livelihood.  But  God  will  arrange  all,  and  all  we 
have  to  do  is  to  do  our  best  and  trust  him  for  the 
rest. 

Let  me  cheer  all  women  fighting  the  battle  of  life 
alone  with  the  fact  of  thousands  of  women  who  have 
won  the  day.  Mary  Lyon,  founder  of  Mount  Hol- 
yoke  Female  Seminary,  fought  the  battle  alone ;  Ade- 
laide Newton,  the  tract  distributor,  alone;  Fidelia 
Fisk,  the  consecrated  missionary,  alone;  Dorothea 
Dix,  the  angel  of  the  insane  asylums,  alone;  Caro- 

50  VOL.  XI. 


Women  of  America 

line  Herschel,  the  indispensable  re-enforcement  of  her 
brother,  alone ;  Maria  Takrzewska,  the  heroine  of  the 
Berlin  hospital,  alone;  Helen  Chalmers,  patron  of 
sewing-schools  for  the  poor  of  Edinburgh,  alone. 
And  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  women,  of 
whose  bravery  and  self-sacrifice  and  glory  of  char- 
acter the  world  has  made  no  record,  but  whose  deeds 
are  in  the  heavenly  archives  of  martyrs  who  fought" 
the  battle  alone,  and,  though  unrecognized  for  the 
short  thirty  or  fifty  or  eighty  years  of  their  earthly 
existence,  shall  through  the  quintillion  ages  of  the 
higher  world  be  pointed  out  with  the  admiring  cry: 
"  These  are  they  who  came  out  of  great  tribulation 
and  had  their  robes  washed  and  made  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb." 

Let  me  also  say,  for  the  encouragement  of  all 
women  fighting  the  battle  of  life  alone,  that  their 
conflict  will  soon  end.  There  is  one  word  written 
on  the  faces  of  many  of  them,  and  that  word  is 
Despair.  My  sister,  you  need  appeal  to  Christ,  who 
comforted  the  sisters  of  Bethany  in  domestic  trouble, 
and  who  in  his  last  hours  forgot  all  the  pangs  of 
his  own  hands  and  feet  and  heart,  as  he  looked  into 
the  face  of  maternal  anguish,  and  called  a  friend's  at- 
tention to  it,  in  substance,  saying:  "John,  I  cannot 
take  care  of  her  any  longer.  Do  for  her  as  I  would 
have  done,  if  I  had  lived.  Behold  thy  mother !  "  If, 
under  the  pressure  of  unrewarded  and  unappreciated 
work,  your  hair  is  whitening  and  the  wrinkles  come, 
rejoice  that  you  are  nearing  the  hour  of  escape  from 
your  very  last  fatigue,  and  may  your  departure  be  as 
pleasant  as  that  of  Isabella  Graham,  who  closed  her 
life  with  a  smile  and  the  word  "  Peace." 

The  daughter  of  a  regiment  in  any  army  is  all  sur- 
rounded by  bayonets  of  defense,  and,  in  the  battle, 

VOL.  XI.  SI 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

whoever  falls,  she  Is  kept  safe.  And  you  are  the 
daughter  of  the  regiment  commanded  by  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.  After  all,  you  are  not  fighting  the  battle  of 
life  alone.  All  heaven  is  on  your  side.  You  will  be 
wise  to  appropriate  to  yourself  the  words  of  sacred 
rhythm : 

One  who  has  known  in  storms  to  sail 

I  have  on  board; 
Above  the  roaring  of  the  gale 

I  hear  my  Lord. 

He  holds  me;  when  the  billows  smite 

I  shall  not  fall. 
If  short,  'tis  sharp;  if  long,  'tis  light; 

He  tempers  all. 


52 


VOL.  XI. 


WORLDLY  MARRIAGES 

I  Sam.,  25:  2:  "  And  there  was  a  man  in  Maon  whose  pos- 
sessions were  in  Carmel,  and  the  man  was  very  great,  and 
he  had  three  thousand  sheep  and  a  thousand  goats." 


WORLDLY  MARRIAGES 

I  Sam.,  25:  2:  "  And  there  was  a  man  in  Maon  whose  pos- 
sessions were  in  Carmel,  and  the  man  was  very  great,  and 
he  had  three  thousand  sheep  and  a  thousand  goats." 

My  text  introduces  us  to  a  drunken  bloat  of  large 
property.  Before  the  day  of  safety  deposits  and  gov- 
ernment bonds  and  national  banks,  people  had  their 
investment  in  flocks  and  herds,  and  this  man,  Nabal, 
of  the  text,  had  much  of  his  possessions  in  live-stock. 
He  came  also  of  a  distinguished  family,  and  had  glo- 
rious Caleb  for  an  ancestor.  But  this  descendant  was 
a  sneak,  a  churl,  a  sot  and  a  fool.  One  instance  to 
illustrate:  It  was  a  wool-raising  country,  and  at  the 
time  of  shearing  a  great  feast  was  prepared  for  the 
shearers;  and  David  and  his  warriors,  who  had  in 
other  days  saved  from  destruction  the  threshing-floors 
of  Nabal,  sent  to  him,  asking,  in  this  time  of  plenty, 
for  some  bread  for  their  hungry  men.  And  Nabal 
cried  out:  "Who  is  David?"  As  though  an  Eng- 
lishman had  said,  "Who  is  Wellington?"  or  a 
German  should  say,  "Who  is  Von  Moltke?"  or  an 
American  should  say,  "  Who  is  Washington?  "  Noth- 
ing did  Nabal  give  to  the  starving  men,  and  that  night 
the  scoundrel  lay  dead  drunk  at  home;  and  the  Bible 
gives  us  a  full  length  picture  of  him,  sprawling  and 
maudlin  and  helpless. 

Now  that  was  the  man  whom  Abigail,  the  lovely 
and  gracious  and  good  woman,  married  —  a  tuberose 
planted  beside  a  thistle,  a  palm-branch  twined  into  a 
wreath  of  deadly  nightshade.  Surely  that  was  not  one 
of  the  matches  made  in  heaven.  We  throw  up  our 
VOL.  XI.  55 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

hands  in  horror  at  that  wedding.  How  did  she  ever 
consent  to  Hnk  her  destinies  with  such  a  creature? 
Well,  she  no  doubt  thought  that  it  would  be  an  honor 
to  be  associated  with  an  aristocratic  family;  and  no 
one  can  despise  a  great  name.  Beside  that,  wealth 
would  come,  and  with  it  chains  of  gold,  in  mansions 
lighted  by  swinging  lamps  of  aromatic  oil,  and  re- 
sounding with  the  cheer  of  banqueters,  seated  at  tables 
laden  with  wines  from  the  richest  vineyards,  with 
fruit  from  ripest  orchards,  and  nuts  threshed  from  for- 
eign woods,  and  meats  smoking  in  platters  of  gold, 
carried  by  slaves  in  bright  uniform.  Before  she 
plighted  her  troth  with  this  dissipated  man,  she  some^ 
times  said  to  herself:  "  How  can  I  endure  him?  To 
be  associated  for  life  with  such  a  debauchee  I  cannot 
and  will  not!  "  But  then  again  she  said  to  herself: 
"  It  is  time  I  was  married,  and  this  is  a  cold  world  to 
depend  on,  and  perhaps  I  might  do  worse,  and  may 
be  I  will  make  a  sober  man  out  of  him,  and  marriage 
is  a  lottery  anyhow."  And  when,  one  day,  this  repre- 
sentative of  a  great  house  presented  himself  in  a  par- 
enthesis of  sobriety,  and  with  assumed  geniahty  and 
gallantry  of  manner,  and  with  promises  of  fidelity  and 
kindness  and  self-abnegation,  a  June  morning  smiled 
on  a  March  squall,  and  the  great-souled  woman  surren- 
dered her  happiness  to  the  keeping  of  thisi  infamous 
son  of  fortune,  whose  possessions  were  in  Carmel; 
"  and  the  man  was  very  great,  and  he  had  three  thou- 
sand sheep  and  a  thousand  goats,"  ■ 

Behold  here  a  domestic  tragedy  repeated  every 
hour  of  every  day,  all  over  Christendom  —  marriage 
for  worldly  success,  without  regard  to  character.  So 
Marie  Jeanne  Philipon,  the  daughter  of  the  humble  en- 
graver, became  the  famous  Madame  Roland  of  his- 
tory, the  vivacious  and  brilliant  girl,  united  with  the 
cold,  formal,  monotonous  man,  because  he  came  of 

56  VOL.  XI. 


Worldly  Marriages 

an  affluent  family  of  Amiens,  and  had  lordly  blood  in 
his  veins.  The  day  when,  through  political  revolu- 
tion, this  patriotic  woman  was  led  to  the  scaffold, 
around  which  lay  piles  of  human  heads  that  had  fallen 
from  the  ax,  and  she  said  to  an  aged  man  whom  she 
had  comforted  as  they  ascended  the  scaffold,  "  Go 
first,  that  you  may  not  witness  my  death,"  and  then, 
undaunted,  took  her  turn  to  die  —  that  day  was  to 
her  only  the  last  act  of  a  tragedy,  of  which  her  mar- 
riage day  was  the  first. 

Good  and  genial  character  in  a  man,  the  very  first 
requisite  for  a  woman's  happy  marriage.  Mistake  me 
not  as  depreciative  of  worldly  prosperities.  There  is 
a  religious  cant  that  would  seem  to  represent  poverty 
as  a  virtue  and  wealth  as  a  crime.  I  can  take  you 
through  a  thousand  mansions  where  God  is  as  much 
worshiped  as  he  ever  was  in  a  cabin.  The  Gospel  in- 
culcates the  virtues  which  tend  toward  wealth.  In  the 
millennium  we  will  all  dwell  in  palaces,  and  ride  in 
chariots,  and  sit  at  sumptuous  banquets,  and  sleep  un- 
der rich  embroideries,  and  live  four  or  five  hundred 
years,  for,  if  according  to  the  Bible,  in  those  times  a 
child  shall  die  a  hundred  years  old,  the  average  hu- 
man life  will  be  at  least  five  centuries. 

The  whole  tendency  of  sin  is  toward  poverty,  and 
the  whole  tendency  of  righteousness  is  toward  wealth. 
Godliness  is  profitable  for  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well 
as  for  that  which  is  to  come.  No  inventory  can  be 
made  of  the  picture  galleries  consecrated  to  God,  or 
of  sculpture,  or  of  libraries,  pillared  magnificence,  of 
parks  and  fountains  and  gardens  in  the  ownership  of 
good  men  and  women.  The  two  most  lordly  resi- 
dences in  which  I  was  ever  a  guest  had  morning  and 
evening  prayers,  all  the  employees  present,  and  all 
day  long  there  was  an  air  of  cheerful  piety  in  the  con- 
versation and  behavior.  Lord  Radstock  carried  the 
VOL.  XI.  57 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Gospel  to  the  Russian  nobility.  Lord  Cavan  and 
Lord  Cairns  spent  their  vacation  in  evangelistic  ser- 
vices. Lord  Congleton  became  missionary  to  Bag- 
dad. And  the  Christ  who  was  born  in  an  Eastern  car- 
avansary has  lived  in  a  palace. 

It  is  a  grand  thing  to  have  plenty  of  money;  to 
own  horses  that  do  not  compel  you  to  take  the  dust  of 
every  lumbering  and  lazy  vehicle,  and  books  of  history 
that  give  you  a  glimpse  of  all  the  past,  and  shelves 
of  poetry  to  which  you  may  go  and  ask  Milton  or 
Tennyson  or  Spencer  or  Tom  '  Moore  or  Robert 
Burns  to  step  down  and  spend  an  evening  with  you; 
and  other  shelves  to  which  you  may  go  while  you 
feel  disgusted  with  the  shams  of  the  world,  and  ask 
Thackeray  to  express  your  chagrin,  or  Charles  Dick- 
ens to  expose  Pecksnififianism,  or  Thomas  Carlyle  to 
thunder  your  indignation;  or  the  other  shelves  where 
the  old  Gospel  writers  stand  ready  to  warn  and  cheer 
us,  while  they  open  doors  into  that  City  which  is  so 
bright  the  noonday  sun  is  abolished. 

There  is  no  virtue  in  owning  a  horse  that  takes 
four  minutes  to  go  a  mile,  if  you  can  own  one  that 
can  go  in  a  little  over  two  minutes  and  a  half;  no  vir- 
tue in  running  into  the  teeth  of  a  northeast  wind  with 
thin  apparel  if  you  can  afford  furs ;  no  virtue  in  being 
poor  when  you  can  honestly  be  rich.  There  are  names 
of  men  and  women  that  I  have  only  to  mention,  and 
they  suggest  not  only  wealth,  but  religion  and  gener- 
osity and  philanthropy,  such  as  Amos  Lawrence, 
James  Lenox,  Peter  Cooper,  William  E.  Dodge,  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  Miss  Catherine  Wolfe,  Mrs.  Astor,  and 
Miss  Helen  Gould.  A  recent  writer  says  that  of  fifty 
leading  business  men  in  one  of  our  Eastern  cities,  and 
of  the  fifty  leading  business  men  of  one  of  our  West- 
em  cities,  three-fourths  of  them  are  Christians.  The 
fact  is,  that  about  all  the  brain  and  the  business  genius 

58  VOL.  XI. 


Worldly  Marriages 

is  on  the  side  of  religion.  Infidelity  is  incipient  in- 
sanity. All  infidels  are  cranks.  Many  of  them  talk 
brightly,  but  you  soon  find  that  in  their  mental  ma- 
chinery there  is  a  screw  loose.  When  they  are  not 
lecturing  against  Christianity  they  are  sitting  in  bar- 
rooms, squirting  tobacco  juice,  and  when  they  get 
mad  swear  till  the  place  is  sulphurous.  They  only 
talk  to  keep  their  courage  up,  and  at  last  will  feel  like 
the  infidel  who  begged  to  be  buried  with  his  Oiristian 
wife  and  daughter,  and  when  asked  why  he  wanted 
such  burial,  repHed:  "If  there  be  a  resurrection  of 
the  good,  as  some  folks  say  there  will  be,  my  Christian 
wife  and  daughter  will  somehow  get  me  up  and  take 
me  along  with  them." 

Men  may  pretend  to  despise  religion,  but  they  are 
rank  hypocrites.  The  sea-captain  was  right  when  he 
came  up  to  the  village  on  the  seacoast,  and  insisted 
on  paying  ten  dollars  to  the  church,  although  he  did 
not  attend  himself.  When  asked  his  reason,  he  said 
that  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  carrying  cargoes  of 
oysters  and  clams  from  that  place,  and  he  found,  since 
that  church  was  built,  the  people  were  more  honest 
than  they  used  to  be,  for  before  the  church  was  built 
he  often  found  the  load,  when  he  came  to  count  it,  a 
thousand  clams  short.  Yes.  Godliness  is  profitable 
for  both  worlds.  Most  of  the  great,  honest,  perma- 
nent worldly  successes  are  by  those  who  reverence 
God  and  the  Bible.  But  what  I  do  say  is  that  if  a 
man  have  nothing  but  social  position  and  financial  re- 
sources, a  woman  who  puts  her  happiness  by  marriage 
in  his  hand,  re-enacts  the  folly  of  Abigail  when  she 
accepted  disagreeable  Nabal,  "  whose  possessions  were 
in  Carmel;  and  the  man  was  very  g^eat,  and  he  had 
three  thousand  sheep  and  a  thousand  goats." 

If  there  be  good  moral  character  accompanied  by 
affluent  circumstances,  I  congratulate  you.  If  not, 
VOL.  XI.  59 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

let  the  morning  lark  fly  clear  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
eagle.  The  sacrifice  of  woman  on  the  altar  of  social 
and  financial  expectation  is  cruel  and  stupendous.  I 
sketch  you  a  scene  you  have  more  than  once  wit- 
nessed. A  comfortable  home,  with  nothing  more  than 
ordinary  surroundings;  but  an  attractive  daughter 
carefully  and  Christianly  reared.  From  the  outside 
world  comes  in  a  man  with  nothing  but  money,  un- 
less you  count  profanity  and  selfishness  and  fondness 
for  champagne  and  general  recklessness  as  part  of  his 
possessions.  He  has  his  coat  collar  turned  up  when 
there  is  no  chill  in  the  air,  not  because  he  is 
cold,  but  because  it  gives  him  an  air  of  abandon; 
and  eyeglass,  not  because  he  is  nearsighted,  but 
because  it  gives  a  classical  appearance ;  and  with 
an  attire  somewhat  loud,  a  cane  thick  enough 
to  be  the  club  of  Hercules  and  clutched  at  the  middle, 
his  conversation  interlarded  with  French  phrases  in- 
accurately pronounced,  and  a  sweep  of  manner  indi- 
cating that  he  was  not  bom  like  most  folks,  but  terres- 
trially landed.  By  arts  learned  of  the  devil  he  insinu- 
ates himself  into  the  afifections  of  the  daughter  of  that 
Christian  home.  All  the  kindred  congratulate  her  on 
the  auspicious  prospects.  Reports  come  in  that  the 
young  man  is  fast  in  his  habits,  that  he  has  broken 
several  young  hearts,  and  that  he  is  mean  and  selfish 
and  cruel.  But  all  this  is  covered  up  with  the  fact 
that  he  has  several  houses  in  his  own  name,  and  has 
large  deposits  at  the  bank,  and,  more  than  all,  has  a 
father  worth  many  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  in 
very  feeble  health,  who  may  any  day  drop  off,  and  this 
is  the  only  son.  If  a  round  dollar  held  close  to  one's 
eye  is  large  enough  to  shut  out  a  great  desert,  how 
much  more  will  several  bushels  of  dollars  shut  out! 
The  marriage  day  comes  and  goes.  The  wedding  ring 
was  costly  enough  and  the  orange  blossoms  fragrant 
enough   and  the  benediction  solemn  enough   and  the 

60  VOL.  XI. 


Worldly  Marriages 

wedding  march  stirring  enough.  The  audience  shed 
tears  of  sympathetic  gladness,  supposing  that  the  craft 
containing  the  two  has  sailed  off  on  a  placid  lake, 
although  God  knows  that  they  are  launched  on  a  dead 
sea,  its  waters  brackish  with  tears  and  ghastly  with 
upturned  faces  of  despair,  floating  to  the  surface  and 
then  going  down.  There  they  are,  the  newly-married 
pair  in  their  new  home.  He  turns  out  to  be  a  tyrant. 
Her  will  is  nothing,  his  will  everything.  Lavish 
of  money  for  his  own  pleasure,  he  begrudges  her  the 
pennies  he  doles  out  into  her  trembling  palm.  In- 
stead of  the  kind  words  she  left  behind  in  her  former 
home,  now  there  are  complaints  and  fault-findings. 
He  is  the  master  and  she  the  slave. 

The  worst  villain  on  earth  is  the  man  who,  having 
captured  a  woman  from  her  father's  house,  and  after 
the  oath  of  the  marriage  altar  has  been  pronounced, 
says,  by  his  manner  if  not  his  words:  "  I  have  you 
now  in  my  power.  What  can  you  do?  My  arm  is 
stronger  than  yours.  My  voice  is  louder  than  yours. 
My  fortune  is  greater  than  yours.  My  name  is 
mightier  than  yours.  Now  crouch  before  me  like  a 
dog.  Now  crawl  away  from  me  like  a  reptile.  You 
are  nothing  but  a  woman  anyhow.  Down,  you  miser- 
able wretch!"  Can  halls  of  mosaic,  can  long  lines 
of  Etruscan  bronze,  or  statuary  by  Palmer  and  Pow- 
ers and  Crawford  and  Chantry  and  Canova,  can  gal- 
leries rich  from  the  pencil  of  Bierstadt  and  Church  and 
Kenset  and  Cole  and  Cropsey,  could  flutes  played  on 
by  an  Ole  Bull  or  pianos  fingered  by  a  Gottschalk 
or  solos  warbled  by  a  Sonntag,  could  wardrobes  like 
those  of  a  Marie  Antoinette,  could  jewels  like  those 
of  a  Eugenie,  make  a  wife  in  such  a  companionship 
happy?  Imprisoned  in  a  castle!  Her  gold  bracelets 
are  the  chains  of  a  lifelong  servitude.  There  is  a 
sword  over  her  every  feast,  not  like  that  of  Damocles, 

VOL,  XI.  6i 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

not  staying  suspended,  but  dropping  through  her  lace- 
rated heart.  Her  wardrobe  is  full  of  shrouds  for 
deaths  which  she  dies  daily,  and  she  is  buried  alive, 
though  buried  under  gorgeous  upholstery.  There  is 
one  word  that  sounds  under  the  arches,  that  rolls 
along  the  corridors  and  weeps  in  the  falling  fountains, 
that  echoes  in  the  shutting  of  every  door,  and  groans 
in  every  note  of  stringed  and  wind  instrument: 
"  Woe!  Woe!  "  The  oxen  and  sheep,  in  olden  times, 
brought  to  a  temple  of  Jupiter  to  be  sacrificed,  used  to 
be  covered  with  ribbons  and  flowers  —  ribbons  on. 
the  horns  and  flowers  on  the  neck.  But  the  floral  and 
ribboned  decoration  did  not  make  the  stab  of  the 
butcher's  knife  less  deathful,  and  all  the  chandeliers 
you  hang  over  such  a  woman,  and  all  the  robes  with 
which  you  enwrap  her,  and  all  the  ribbons  with  which 
you  adorn  her,  and  all  the  bewitching  charms  with 
which  you  embank  her  footsteps  are  the  ribbons  and 
flowers  of  a  horrible  butchery. 

As  if  to  show  how  wretched  a  good  woman  may 
be  in  splendid  surroundings,  we  have  two  recent  illus- 
trations, two  ducal  palaces  in  Great  Britain.  They 
are  the  foci  of  the  best  things  that  are  possible  in  art, 
in  literature,  in  architecture,  the  accumulation  of  other 
estates,  until  their  wealth  is  beyond  calculation,  and 
their  grandeur  beyond  description.  One  of  the  cas- 
tles has  a  cabinet  set  with  gems  that  cost  two  million 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  the  walls  of  it  bloom 
with  Rembrandts  and  Claudes  and  Pouissins  and  Gui- 
dos  and  Raphaels,  and  there  are  Southdown  flocks  in 
summer  grazing  on  its  lawns,  and  Arab  steeds  pranc- 
ing at  the  doorways  on  the  "  first  open  day  at  the 
kennels."  From  the  one  castle  the  duchess  has  re- 
moved with  her  children,  because  she  can  no  longer 
endure  the  orgies  of  her  husband,  the  duke,  and  in 
the  other  castle  the  duchess  remains,  confronted  by 

62  VOL.  XI. 


Worldly  Marriages 

insults  and  abominations,  in  the  presence  of  which 
I  do  not  think  God  or  decent  society  requires  a  good 
woman  to  remain. 

Alas  for  the  ducai  country  seats;  They  on  a 
large  scale  illustrate  what  on  a  smaller  scale  may  be 
seen  in  many  places,  that  without  moral  character  in 
a  husband,  all  the  accessories  of  wealth  are  to  a  wife's 
soul  tantalization  and  mockery.  When  Abigail  found 
Nabal,  her  husband,  beastly  drunk,  as  she  came  home 
from  interceding  for  his  fortune  and  life,  it  was  no 
alleviation  that  the  old  brute  had  possessions  in  Car- 
mel,  and  "  was  very  great,  and  had  three  thousand 
sheep  and  one  thousand  goats,"  and  he  the  worst  goat 
among  them.  The  animal  in  his  nature  seized  the  soul 
and  ran  off  with  it.  Before  things  are  right  in  this 
world  genteel  villains  are  to  be  expurgated.  Instead 
of  being  welcomed  into  respectable  society  because  of 
the  number  of  stars  and  garters  and  medals  and  es- 
tates they  represent,  they  ought  to  be  fumigated  two 
or  three  years  before  they  are  allowed  to  put  their 
hand  on  the  door-knob  of  a  moral  house.  The  time 
must  come  when  a  masculine  estray  will  be  as  repug- 
nant to  good  society  as  a  feminine  estray,  and  no  coa! 
of  arms  or  family  emblazonry  or  epaulet  can  pass  a 
Lothario  unchallenged  among  the  sanctities  of  home 
life.  By  what  law  of  God  or  common  sense  is  an 
Absalom  better  than  a  Delilah,  a  Don  Juan  better 
than  a  Messalina?  The  brush  that  paints  the  one 
black  must  paint  the  other  black. 

But  what  a  spectacle  it  was  when  one  summer 
much  of  "  watering-place  "  society  went  wild  with  en- 
thusiasm over  an  unclean  foreign  dignitary,  whose 
name  in  both  hemispheres  is  a  synonym  for  profligacy, 
and  princesses  of  American  society  from  all  parts  of 
the  land  had  him  ride  in  their  carriages  and  sit  at  their 
tables,  though  they  knew  him  to  be  a  portable  laza- 
voL.  XI.  63 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

retto,  a  charnel  house  of  moral  putrefaction,  his  breath 
a  typhoid,  his  foot  that  of  a  Satyr,  and  his  touch  death. 
Here  is  an  evil  that  man  cannot  stop,  but  woman  may. 
Keep  all  such  out  of  your  parlors,  have  no  recognition 
for  them  in  the  street,  and  no  more  think  of  allying 
your  life  and  destiny  with  theirs  than  "  gales  from 
Araby  "  would  consent  to  pass  the  honeymoon  with 
an  Egyptian  plague.  All  the  money  or  social  posi- 
tion a  bad  man  brings  to  a  woman  in  marriage  is  a 
splendid  despair,  a  gilded  horror,  a  brilliant  agony,  a 
prolonged  death;  and  the  longer  the  marital  union 
lasts,  the  more  evident  will  be  the  fact  that  she  might 
better  never  have  been  born.  Yet  you  and  I  have 
been  at  brilliant  weddings,  where,  before  the  feast  was 
over,  the  bridegroom's  tongue  was  thick  and  his  eye 
glassy  and  his  step  a  stagger,  as  he  clicked  glasses 
with  jolly  comrades,  all  going,  with  lightning  express 
train,  to  the  fatal  crash  over  the  embankment  of  a 
ruined  life  and  a  lost  eternity. 

Woman,  join  not  your  right  hand  with  such  a  right 
hand.  Accept  from  such  an  one  no  jewel  for  finger 
or  ear,  lest  that  sparkle  of  precious  stone  turn  out 
to  be  the  eye  of  a  basilisk;  and  let  not  the  ring  come 
on  the  finger  of  your  left  hand,  lest  that  ring  turn 
out  to  be  one  link  of  a  chain  that  shall  bind  you  in 
never-ending  captivity.  In  the  name  of  God  and 
heaven  and  home,  in  the  name  of  all  time  and  all  eter- 
nity, I  forbid  the  banns!  Consent  not  to  join  one  of 
the  many  regiments  of  women  who  have  married  for 
worldly  success  without  regard  to  moral  character.  If 
you  are  ambitious  for  noble  affiancing,  why  not  marry 
a  king?  And  to  that  honor  you  are  invited  by  the 
Monarch  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  this  day  a  voice 
from  the  sky  sounds  forth :  "  As  the  bridegroom  re- 
joiceth  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over 
thee."     Let  him  put  upon  thee  the  ring  of  this  royal 

64  VOL.  XI. 


Worldly  Marriages 

marriage.  Here  is  an  honor  worth  reaching  after. 
By  repentance  and  faith  you  may  come  into  a  mar- 
riage with  the  Emperor  of  universal  dominion,  and 
you  may  be  an  Empress  unto  God  forever,  and  reign 
with  him  in  palaces  that  the  centuries  cannot  crumble, 
or  cannonades  demolish. 

High,  worldly  marriage  is  not  necessary,  or  mar- 
riage of  any  kind,  in  order  to  your  happiness.  Celib- 
acy has  been  honored  by  the  best  Being  that  ever 
lived  and  by  his  greatest  apostle  —  Christ  and  Paul. 
What  higher  honor  could  single  life  on  earth  have? 
But  what  you  need,  O  woman,  is  to  be  affianced  for- 
ever and  forever,  and  the  banns  of  that  marriage  I 
am  now  ready  to  publish.  Let  the  angels  of  heaven 
bend  from  their  galleries  of  light  to  witness,  while  I 
pronounce  you  one  —  a  loving  God  and  a  forgiven 
soul. 

One  of  the  most  stirring  passages  m  history  with 
which  I  am  acquainted  tells  us  how  Cleopatra,  the  ex- 
iled Queen  of  Egypt,  won  the  sympathies  of  Julius 
CaBsar,  the  conqueror,  until  he  became  the  bride- 
groom, and  she  the  bride.  Driven  from  her  throne, 
she  sailed  away  on  the  Mediterranean  sea  in  a  storm, 
and  when  the  large  ship  anchored,  she  put  out  with  one 
womanly  friend  in  a  small  boat,  until  she  arrived  at 
Alexandria,  where  was  Caesar,  the  great  general. 
Knowing  that  she  would  not  be  permitted  to  land  or 
pass  the  guards  on  the  way  to  Caesar's  palace,  she 
laid  upon  the  bottom  of  the  boat  some  shawls  and 
scarfs  and  richly  dyed  upholstery,  and  then  laid  down 
upon  them,  and  her  friend  wrapped  her  in  them,  and 
she  was  admitted  ashore  in  this  wrapping  of  goods, 
which  was  announced  as  a  present  for  Caesar.  This 
bundle  was  permitted  to  pass  the  guards  of  the  gates 
of  the  palace  and  was  pmt  down  at  the  feet  of  the 
Roman  general.  When  the  bundle  was  unrolled,  there 
VOL.  XI.  6s 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

rose  before  Caesar  one  whose  courage  and  beauty  and 
brilliancy  are  the  astonishment  of  the  ages.  This  ex- 
iled queen  of  Egypt  told  the  story  of  her  sorrows, 
and  he  promised  her  that  she  should  get  back  her 
throne  in  Egypt  and  take  the  throne  of  wifely  do- 
minion in  his  own  heart.  Afterward  they  made  a 
triumphal  tour  in  a  barge  which  the  pictures  of  many 
art  galleries  have  called  "  Cleopatra's  Barge,"  and  that 
barge  was  covered  with  silken  awning,  and  its  deck 
was  soft  with  luxuriant  carpets,  and  the  oars  were 
silver-tipped,  and  the  prow  was  gold-mounted,  and  the 
air  was  redolent  with  the  spicery  of  tropical  gardens, 
and  resonant  with  the  music  that  made  the  night  glad 
as  the  day. 

You  may  rejoice,  O  woman,  that  you  are  not  a 
Cleopatra,  and  that  the  One  to  whom  you  may  be  affi- 
anced had  none  of  the  sins  of  Csesar,  the  conqueror. 
But  it  suggests  to  me  how  you,  a  soul  exiled  from 
happiness  and  peace,  may  find  your  way  to  the  feet 
of  the  Conqueror  of  earth  and  sky.  Though  it  may 
be  a  dark  night  of  spiritual  agitation  in  which  you  put 
out,  you  may  sail  into  the  harbor  of  peace,  and  when 
all  the  wrappings  of  fear  and  doubt  and  sin  shall  be 
removed,  you  will  be  found  at  the  feet  of  him  who 
will  put  you  on  a  throne  to  be  acknowledged  as  his 
in  the  day  when  all  the  silver  trumpets  of  the  sky  shall 
proclaim:  "  Behold  the  bridegroom  cometh;  "  and  in 
a  barge  of  light  you  sail  with  him  the  river  whose 
source  is  the  foot  of  the  throne,  and  whose  mouth  is 
at  the  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire. 


66  VOL.  XI. 


THE  FIRST  WOMAN 

Gen.,  3:  G:  "  And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was 
good  for  food  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a 
tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit 
thereof  and  did  eat  and  gave  also  unto  her  husband  with 
her,  and  he  did  eat." 


THE  FIRST  WOMAN 

Gen.,  3:6:  "  And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was 
good  for  food  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a 
tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit 
thereof  and  did  eat  and  gave  also  unto  her  husband  with 
her,  and  he  did  eat." 

It  is  the  first  Saturday  afternoon  in  the  world's 
existence.  Ever  since  sunrise  Adam  has  been  watch- 
ing the  brilliant  pageantry  of  wings  and  scales  and 
clouds,  and  in  his  first  lessons  in  zoology  and  ornith- 
ology and  ichthyology  he  has  noticed  that  the  robins 
fly  the  air  in  twos,  and  that  the  fish  swim  the  water 
in  twos,  and  that  the  lions  walk  the  fields  in  twos,  and 
in  the  warm  redolence  of  that  Saturday  afternoon  he 
falls  off  into  slumber ;  and  as  if  by  allegory  to  teach  all 
ages  that  the  greatest  of  earthly  blessings  is  sound 
sleep,  this  paradisaical  somnolence  ends  with  the  dis- 
covery on  the  part  of  Adam  of  a  corresponding  intelli- 
gence just  landed  on  the  new  planet.  Of  the  mother 
of  all  the  living  I  speak  —  Eve,  the  first,  the  fairest, 
and  the  best. 

I  make  me  a  garden.  I  inlay  the  paths  with  moun- 
tain moss,  and  I  border  them  with  pearls  from  Ceylon 
and  diamonds  from  Golconda.  There  are  woodbine 
and  honeysuckle  climbing  over  the  wall,  and  starred 
spaniels  sprawling  themselves  on  the  grass.  And  yet 
the  place  is  a  desert  filled  with  darkness  and  death  as 
compared  with  the  residence  of  the  woman  of  the 
text,  the  subject  of  my  story.  Never  since  have  such 
skies  looked  down  through  such  leaves  into  such 
waters!  Never  has  river  wave  had  such  curve  and 
VOL.  XI.  69 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

sheen  and  bank  as  adorned  the  Pison,  the  Havilah, 
the  Gihon,  and  the  Hiddekel,  even  the  pebbles  being 
bdelUum  and  onyx  stone!  What  fruits,  with  no  cur- 
cuUo  to  sting  the  rind !  What  flowers,  with  no  slug  to 
gnaw  the  root!  What  atmosphere,  with  no  frost  to 
chill  and  with  no  heat  to  consume!  Bright  colors 
tangled  in  the  grass.  Perfume  in  the  air.  Music  in 
the  sky.  Great  scene  of  gladness  and  love  and  joy. 
Right  there  under  a  bower  of  leaf  and  vine  and  shrub 
occurred  the  first  marriage.  Adam  took  the  hand  of 
this  immaculate  daughter  of  God  and  performed  the 
ceremony  when  he  said:  "Bone  of  my  bone,  and 
flesh  of  my  flesh." 

A  forbidden  tree  stood  in  the  midst  of  that  ex- 
quisite park.  Eve  sauntering  out  one  day  alone,  looks 
up  at  the  tree  and  sees  the  beautiful  fruit,  and  wonders 
if  it  is  sweet,  and  wonders  if  it  is  sour,  and  standing 
there,  says:  "  I  think  I  will  just  put  my  hand  upon 
the  fruit;  it  will  do  no  damage  to  the  tree;  I  will  not 
take  the  fruit  to  eat,  but  I  will  just  take  it  down 
to  examine  it."  She  examined  the  fruit.  She  said: 
"  I  do  not  think  there  can  be  any  harm  in  my  just 
breaking  the  rind  of  it."  She  put  the  fruit  to  her  teeth, 
she  tasted,  she  allowed  Adam  also  to  taste  the  fruit, 
the  door  of  the  world  opened,  and  then  Sin  entered. 
Let  the  heavens  gather  blackness,  and  the  wind  sigh 
on  the  bosom  of  the  hills  and  cavern  and  desert  and 
earth  and  sky  join  in  one  long,  deep,  hell-rending 
howl  —  "  The  world  is  lost!  " 

Beasts  that  before  were  harmless  and  full  of  play 
put  forth  claw  and  sting  and  tooth  and  tusk.  Birds 
whet  their  beak  for  prey.  Clouds  troop  in  the  sky. 
Sharp  thorns  shoot  up  through  the  soft  grass.  Blast- 
ings on  the  leaves.  All  the  chords  of  that  great  har- 
mony are  snapped.  Upon  the  brightest  home  this 
world  ever  sav/,  our  first  parents  turned  their  back  and 

70  VOL.  XI. 


The  First  Woman 

led  forth  on  a  path  of  sorrow  the  broken-hearted 
myriads  of  a  ruined  race. 

Do  you  not  see,  in  the  first  place,  the  danger  of  a 
poorly  regulated  inquisitiveness?  She  wanted  to  know 
how  the  fruit  tasted.  She  found  out,  but  six  thousand 
years  have  deplored  that  unhealthful  curiosity. 
Healthful  curiosity  has  done  a  great  deal  for  letters, 
for  art,  for  science,  and  for  religion.  It  has  gone 
down  into  the  depths  of  the  earth  with  the  geologist, 
and  seen  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  written  in  the 
book  of  nature  illustrated  with  engraving  on  rock,  and 
it  stood  with  the  antiquarian  while  he  blew  the  trum- 
pet of  resurrection  over  buried  Herculaneum  and 
Pompeii,  until  from  their  sepulcher  there  came  up  shaft 
and  terrace  and  amphitheater.  Healthful  curiosity  has 
enlarged  the  telescopic  vision  of  the  astronomer  until 
worlds  hidden  in  the  distant  heavens  have  trooped 
forth  and  have  joined  the  choir  praising  the  Lord. 
Planet  weighed  against  planet  and  wildest  comet  las- 
sooed  with  resplendent  law.  I  say  nothing  against 
healthful  curiosity.  May  it  have  other  Leyden  jars 
and  other  electric  batteries  and  other  voltaic  piles 
and  other  magnifying-glasses  with  which  to  storm 
the  barred  castles  of  the  natural  world,  until  it  shall 
surrender  its  last  secret.  We  thank  God  for  the  geo- 
logical curiosity  of  Professor  Hitchcock,  and  the 
chemical  curiosity  of  Liebig,  and  the  zoological  curi- 
osity of  Cuvier,  and  the  inventive  curiosity  of  Edison ; 
but  we  must  admit  that  unhealthful  and  irregular  in- 
quisitiveness has  rushed  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands into  ruin. 

Eve  just  tasted  the  fruit.  She  was  curious  to  find 
out  how  it  tasted,  and  that  curiosity  blasted  her  and 
blasted  all  nations.  So  there  are  clergymen  in  this 
city,  inspired  by  unhealthful  inquisitiveness,  who  have 
tried  to  look  through  the  key-hole  of  God's  mysteries 
VOL.  XI.  71 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

—  mysteries  that  were  barred  and  bolted  from  all 
human  inspection,  and  they  have  wrenched  their  whole 
moral  nature  out  of  joint  by  trying  to  pluck  fruit  from 
branches  beyond  their  reach,  or  have  come  out  on 
limbs  of  the  tree  from  which  they  have  tumbled  into 
ruin  without  remedy.  A  thousand  trees  of  religious 
knowledge  from  which  we  may  eat  and  get  advantage ; 
but  from  certain  trees  of  mystery  how  many  have 
plucked  their  ruin!  Election,  free  agency,  trinity, 
resurrection  —  in  the  discussion  of  these  subjects  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  people  ruin  the  soul.  There 
are  men  who  actually  have  been  kept  out  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  because  they  could  not  understand  who 
Melchisedec  was  not! 

Oh,  how  many  have  been  destroyed  by  an  un- 
healthful  inquisitiveness !  It  is  seen  in  all  directions. 
There  are  those  who  stand  with  the  eye-stare  and 
mouth-gape  of  curiosity.  They  are  the  first  to  hear 
a  falsehood,  build  it  another  story  high  and  add  two 
wings  to  it.  About  other  people's  apparel,  about  other 
people's  business,  about  other  people's  financial  con- 
dition, about  other  people's  affairs,  they  are  over^ 
anxious.  Every  nice  piece  of  gossip  stops  at  their 
door,  and  they  fatten  and  luxuriate  in  the  endless 
round  of  the  great  world  of  tittle-tattle.  Whoever  hath 
an  innuendo,  whoever  hath  a  scandal,  whoever  hath  a 
valuable  secret,  let  him  come  and  sacrifice  it  to  this 
Goddess  of  Splutter.  Thousands  of  Adams  and  Eves 
do  nothing  but  eat  fruit  that  does  not  belong  to  them. 
Men  quite  well  known  as  mathematicians  failing  in 
this  computation  of  moral  algebra:  good  sense  plus 
good  breeding,  minus  curiosity,  equals  minding  your 
own  affairs! 

Then,  how  many  young  men  through  curiosity  go 
through  the  whole  realm  of  French  novels,  to  see 
whether  they  are  really  as  bad  as  moralists  have  pro- 

J2  VOL.  XI. 


The  First  Woman 

nounced  them!  They  come  near  the  verge  of  the 
precipice  just  to  look  oflf.  They  want  to  see  how  far 
it  really  is  down,  but  they  lose  their  balance  while 
they  look,  and  fall  into  irremediable  ruin;  or,  catching 
themselves,  clamber  up,  bleeding  and  ghastly,  on  the 
rock,  gibbering  with  curses  or  groaning  ineffectual 
prayer.  By  all  means  encourage  healthful  inquisitive- 
ness,  but  by  all  means  discourage  ill-regulated  curi- 
osity. 

This  subject  also  impresses  me  with  the  fact  that 
fruits  that  are  sweet  to  the  taste  may  afterward  pro- 
duce great  agony.  Forbidden  fruit  for  Eve  was  so 
pleasant  she  invited  her  husband  also  to  take  of  it; 
but  her  banishment  from  Paradise  and  six  thousand 
years  of  sorrow  and  wretchedness  and  war  and  woe 
paid  for  that  luxury.  Sin  may  be  very  sweet  at  the 
start,  and  it  may  induce  great  wretchedness  afterward. 
The  cup  of  sin  is  sparkling  at  the  top,  but  there  is  death 
at  the  bottom.  Intoxication  has  great  exhilaration  for 
a  while,  and  it  fillips  the  blood,  and  it  makes  a  man 
see  five  stars  where  others  can  see  only  one  star,  and 
it  makes  the  poor  man  think  himself  rich,  and  turns 
cheeks  which  are  white  red  as  roses;  but  what  about 
the  dreams  that  come  after,  when  he  seems  falling 
from  great  heights,  or  is  prostrated  by  other  fancied 
disasters,  and  the  perspiration  stands  on  the  forehead 
—  the  night  dew  of  everlasting  darkness  —  and  he 
is  ground  under  the  horrible  hoof  of  nightmares 
shrieking  with  lips  that  crackle  with  all-consuming 
torture?  "  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and 
let  thy  heart  cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy  youth;  but 
know  thou  that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee 
into  judgment!  "  Sweet  at  the  start,  horrible  at  the 
last.  Go  into  that  hall  of  revelry,  where  ungodly  mirth 
staggers  and  blasphemes.  Listen  to  the  senseless  gab- 
ble, see  the  last  trace  of  intelligence  dashed  out  from 
VOL.  XI.  73 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

faces  made  in  God's  own  image.  "Aha!  aha!"  says 
the  roistering  inebriate;  "  this  is  joy  for  you;  fill  high 
your  cups,  my  boys.  I  drink  to  my  wife's  misery  and 
my  children's  rags  and  my  God's  defiance."  And  he 
knows  not  that  a  fiend  stirs  the  goblet  in  his  hand  and 
that  adders  uncoil  from  the  dregs  and  thrust  their 
forked  tongues  hissing  through  the  froth  on  the  rim. 
Sin  rapturous  at  the  start,  awful  at  the  last. 

That  one  Edenic  transgression  did  not  seem  to  be 
much,  but  it  struck  a  blow  which  to  this  day  makes 
the  earth  stagger.  To  find  out  the  consequences  of 
that  one  sin,  you  would  have  to  compel  the  world  to 
throw  open  all  its  prison  doors  and  display  the  crime, 
and  throw  open  all  its  hospitals  and  display  the  disease, 
and  throw  open  all  the  insane  asylums  and  show  the 
wretchedness,  and  open  all  the  sepulchres  and  show 
the  dead,  and  open  all  the  doors  of  the  lost  world  and 
show  the  damned.  That  one  Edenic  transgression 
stretched  chords  of  misery  across  the  heart  of  the  world 
and  struck  them  with  dolorous  wailing,  and  it  has 
seated  the  plagues  upon  the  air  and  the  shipwrecks 
upon  the  tempest,  and  fastened,  like  a  leech,  famine  to 
the  heart  of  the  sick  and  dying  nations.  Beautiful  at 
the  start,  horrible  at  the  last.  Oh,  how  many  have 
experienced  it! 

Are  there  among  us  those  who  are  votaries  of 
pleasure?  Let  me  warn  you,  my  brother.  Your  pleas- 
ure boat  is  far  from  shore,  and  your  summer  day  is 
ending  roughly,  for  the  winds  and  the  waves  are  loud- 
voiced,  and  the  overcoming  clouds  are  all  awrithe  and 
agleam  with  terror.  You  are  past  the  "  Narrows," 
and  almost  outside  the  "  Hook,"  and  if  the  Atlantic 
take  you,  frail  mortal,  you  shall  never  get  to  shore 
again.  Put  back!  row  swiftly,  swifter,  swifter!  Jesus 
from  the  shore  casts  a  rope.  Clasp  it  quickly,  now  or 
never.    Are  there  not  some  of  you  who  are  freighting 

74  VOL.  XI. 


The  First  Woman 

all  your  loves  and  joys  and  hopes  upon  a  vessel  which 
shall  never  reach  the  port  of  heaven?  You  near  the 
breakers.  One  heave  upon  the  rocks.  What  an  awful 
crash  was  that !  Another  lunge  may  crush  you  beneath 
the  spars  or  grind  your  bones  to  powder  amid  the  torn 
timbers.  Overboard  for  your  life,  overboard!  Trust 
not  that  loose  plank  nor  attempt  the  wave,  but  quickly 
clasp  the  feet  of  Jesus  walking  on  the  watery  pave- 
ment, shouting  until  he  hear  you:  "  Lord,  save  me, 
or  I  perish."  Sin  beautiful  at  the  start  —  oh,  how  sad, 
how  distressful  at  the  last!  The  ground  over  which 
it  leads  you  is  hollow.  The  fruit  it  offers  to  your  taste 
is  poison.  The  promise  it  makes  to  you  is  a  lie.  Over 
that  ungodly  banquet  the  keen  sword  of  God's  judg- 
ment hangs,  and  there  are  ominous  handwritings  on 
the  walls. 

Observe  also  in  this  subject  how  repelling  sin  is 
when  appended  to  great  attractiveness.  Since  Eve's 
death  there  has  been  no  such  perfection  of  woman- 
hood. You  could  not  suggest  another  attractiveness 
to  the  body  or  suggest  any  added  refinement  to  the 
manner.  You  could  add  no  gracefulness  to  the  gait, 
no  lustre  to  the  eye,  no  sweetness  to  the  voice.  A 
perfect  God  made  her  a  perfect  woman,  to  be  the  com- 
panion of  a  perfect  man  in  a  perfect  home,  and  her 
entire  nature  vibrated  in  accord  with  the  beauty  and 
song  of  Paradise.  But  she  rebelled  against  God's 
government,  and  with  the  same  hand  with  which  she 
plucked  the  fruit  she  launched  upon  the  world  the 
crimes,  the  wars,  the  tumults  that  have  set  the  universe 
a-wailing.  A  terrible  offset  to  all  her  attractiveness. 
We  are  not  surprised  when  we  find  men  and  women 
naturally  vulgar  going  into  transgression.  We  expect 
that  people  who  live  in  the  ditch  shall  have  the  man- 
ners of  the  ditch ;  but  how  shocking  when  we  find  sin 
appended  to  superior  education  and  to  the  refinements 
VOL.  XI.  75 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

of  social  life!  The  accomplishments  of  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots  make  her  patronage  of  Darnley,  the  profli- 
gate, the  more  appalling.  The  genius  of  Catherine 
II  of  Russia  only  sets  forth  in  more  powerful  con- 
trast her  unappeasable  ambition.  The  translations 
from  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  by  Elizabeth,  and  her 
wonderful  qualifications  for  a  queen,  make  the  more 
disgusting  her  capriciousness  of  aflfection  and  her  hot- 
ness  of  temper.  The  greatness  of  Byron's  mind  makes 
the  more  alarming  Byron's  sensuality.  Let  no  one 
think  that  refinement  of  manner  or  exquisiteness  of 
taste  or  superiority  of  education  can  in  any  wise  apolo- 
gize for  ill-temper,  for  an  oppressive  spirit,  for  unkind- 
ness,  for  any  kind  of  sin.  Disobedience  Godward  and 
transgression  manward  can  have  no  excuse.  Accom- 
plishment heaven-high  is  no  apology  for  vice  hell- 
deep. 

My  subject  also  impresses  me  with  the  regal  in- 
fluence of  woman.  When  I  see  Eve  with  this  power- 
ful influence  over  Adam  and  over  the  generations  that 
have  followed,  it  suggests  to  me  that  great  power  all 
women  have  for  good  or  for  evil.  I  have  no  sympathy, 
nor  have  you,  with  the  hollow  flatteries  showered  upon 
woman  from  the  platform  and  the  stage.  They  mean 
nothing;  they  are  accepted  as  nothing.  Woman's 
nobility  consists  in  the  exercise  of  a  Christian 
influence;  and  when  I  see  this  powerful  influ- 
ence of  Eve  upon  her  husband  and  upon  the  whole 
human  race,  I  make  up  my  mind  that  the  frail 
arm  of  woman  can  strike  a  blow  which  will  resound 
through  all  eternity  down  among  the  dungeons  or  up 
among  the  thrones.  I  am  not  now  speaking  of  rep- 
resentative women  —  of  Eve,  who  ruined  the  race  by 
one  fruit-picking;  of  Jael,  who  drove  a  spike  through 
the  head  of  Sisera,  the  warrior ;  of  Esther,  who  over- 
came royalty;  of  Abigail,  who  stopped  a  host  by  her 

76  VOL.  XI. 


The  First  Woman 

own  beautiful  prowess;  of  Mary,  who  nursed  the 
world's  Saviour;  of  Grandmother  Lois,  immortalized 
in  her  grandson  Timothy;  of  Charlotte  Corday,  who 
drove  the  dagger  through  the  heart  of  the  assassin  of 
her  lover;  or  of  Marie  Antoinette,  who  by  one  look 
from  the  balcony  of  her  castle  quieted  a  mob,  her  own 
scaffold  the  throne  of  forgiveness  and  womanly  cour- 
age. I  speak  not  of  these  extraordinary  persons,  but 
of  those  who,  unambitious  for  political  power,  as  wives 
and  mothers  and  sisters  and  daughters,  attend  to  the 
thousand  sweet  offices  of  home. 

When  at  last  we  come  to  calculate  the  forces  that 
decided  the  destiny  of  nations,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
mightiest  and  grandest  influence  came  from  home, 
where  the  wife  cheered  up  despondency  and  fatigue 
and  sorrow  by  her  own  sympathy,  and  the  mother 
trained  her  child  for  heaven,  starting  the  little  feet  on 
the  path  to  the  Celestial  City;  and  the  sisters  by  their 
gentleness  refined  the  manners  of  the  brother ;  and  the 
daughters  were  diligent  in  their  kindness  to  the  aged, 
throwing  wreaths  of  blessing  on  the  road  that  leads 
father  and  mother  down  the  steep  of  years.  God  bless 
our  homes! 


VOL.  XI.  77 


THE  QUEENS  OF  HOME 

Sol.  Song,  6:  8:    "  There  are  three-score  queens." 


THE  QUEENS  OF  HOME 

Sol.  Song,  6:8:     "  There  are  three-score  queens." 

So  Solomon,  by  one  stroke,  set  forth  the  imperial 
character  of  a  true  Christian  woman.  She  is  not  a 
slave,  not  a  hireling,  not  a  subordinate,  but  a  queen. 
In  a  former  sermon  I  showed  you  that  crown  and 
courtly  attendants  and  imperial  wardrobe  were  not 
necessary  to  make  a  queen ;  but  that  graces  of  the  heart 
and  life  will  give  coronation  to  any  woman.  I  showed 
you  at  some  length  that  woman's  position  was  higher 
in  the  world  than  man's,  and  that  although  she  had 
often  been  denied  the  right  of  suffrage,  she  always  ^id 
vote  and  always  would  vote  by  her  influence,  and  that 
her  chief  desire  ought  to  be  that  she  should  have  grace 
rightly  to  rule  in  the  dominion  which  she  has  already 
won.  I  began  an  enumeration  of  some  of  her  rights, 
and  now  I  resume  the  subject. 

In  the  first  place,  woman  has  the  special  and  the 
superlative  right  —  of  blessing  and  comforting  the 
sick.  What  land,  what  street,  what  house,  has  not  felt 
the  smitings  of  disease?  Tens  of  thousands  of  sick- 
beds! What  shall  we  do  with  them?  Shall  man,  with 
his  rough  hand  and  clumsy  foot,  go  stumbling  around 
the  sick-room,  trying  to  soothe  the  distracted  nerves 
and  alleviate  the  pains  of  the  distressed  patient?  The 
young  man  at  college  may  scoflf  at  the  idea  of  being 
under  maternal  influences;  but  at  the  first  blast  of 
typhoid  fever  on  his  cheek,  he  says,  "  Where  is 
mother?"  Walter  Scott  wrote  partly  in  satire  and 
partly  in  compliment; 

VOL.  XI.  8x 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

O  woman,  in  our  hours  of  ease, 
Uncertain,  coy  and  hard  to  please; 
When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 
A  ministering  angel  thou. 

I  think  the  most  pathetic  passage  in  all  the  Bible  is 
the  description  of  the  lad  who  went  out  to  the  harvest 
field  of  Shunem  and  got  sunstruck  —  pressing  his 
hands  on  his  temples  and  crying  out:  "  Oh,  my  head! 
my  head ! "  And  they  said :  "  Carry  him  to  his 
mother."  And  then  the  record  is:  "He  sat  on  her 
knees  till  noon^  and  then  died." 

It  is  an  awful  thing  to  be  ill  away  from  home  in  a 
strange  hotel,  once  in  a  while  men  coming  in  to  look 
at  you,  holding  their  hand  over  their  mouth  for  fear 
they  will  catch  the  contagion.  How  roughly  they  turn 
you  in  bed.  How  loudly  they  talk.  How  you  long 
for  the  ministries  of  home,  I  know  one  such  who 
went  away  from  one  of  the  brightest  homes,  for  several 
weeks'  business  absence  at  the  West.  A  telegram 
came  at  midnight  that  he  was  on  his  deathbed  far 
away  from  home.  By  express  train  the  wife  and 
daughters  went  westward ;  but  they  went  too  late.  He 
feared  not  to  die,  but  he  was  in  an  agony  to  live  until 
his  family  got  there.  He  tried  to  bribe  the  doctor  to 
make  him  live  a  little  while  longer.  He  said :  "  I 
am  willing  to  die,  but  not  alone."  But  the  pulses 
fluttered,  the  eyes  closed,  and  the  heart  stopped.  The 
express  trains  met  in  the  midnight;  wife  and  daugh- 
ters going  westward  —  lifeless  remains  of  husband 
and  father  coming  eastward.  Oh,  it  was  a  sad,  pitiful, 
overwhelming  spectacle!  When  we  are  sick  we  want 
to  be  sick  at  home.  When  the  time  comes  for  us  to 
die  we  want  to  die  at  home.  The  room  may  be  very 
humble,  and  the  faces  that  look  into  ours  may  be  very 
plain;  but  who  cares  for  that?  Loving  hands  to  bathe 
the  temples.  Loving  voices  to  speak  good  cheer. 
Loving  lips  to  read  the  comforting  promises  of  Jesus. 

82  VOL.  XI. 


The  Queens  of  Home 

In  our  Civil  War,  men  cast  the  cannon,  men  fash- 
ioned the  musketry,  men  cried  to  the  hosts,  "  Forward, 
march !  "  men  hurled  their  battalions  on  the  sharp 
edges  of  the  enemy,  crying,  "Charge!  charge!"  but 
woman  scraped  the  lint,  woman  administered  the  cor- 
dials, woman  watched  by  the  dying  couch,  woman 
wrote  the  last  message  to  the  home  circle,  woman  wept 
at  the  solitary  burial,  attended  by  herself  and  four 
men  with  a  spade.  We  greeted  the  generals  home 
with  brass  bands  and  triumphal  arches  and  wild  huz- 
zas; but  the  story  is  too  good  to  be  written  anywhere, 
save  in  the  chronicles  of  heaven,  of  Mrs.  Brady,  who 
came  down  among  the  sick  in  the  swamps  of  the 
Chickahominy;  of  Annie  Ross,  in  the  cooper-shop 
hospital;  of  Margaret  Breckinridge,  who  came  to  men 
who  had  been  for  weeks  with  their  wounds  undressed 
—  some  of  them  frozen  to  the  ground,  and  when  she 
turned  them  over,  those  that  had  an  arm  left,  waved  it 
and  filled  the  air  with  their  "Hurrah!" — of  Mrs. 
Hodge,  who  came  from  Chicago,  with  blankets  and 
with  pillows,  until  the  men  shouted,  "  Three  cheers  for 
the  Christian  Commission!  God  bless  the  women  at 
home ; "  then  sitting  down  to  take  the  last  message : 
"  Tell  my  wife  not  to  fret  about  me,  but  to  meet  me 
in  heaven;  tell  her  to  train  up  the  boys  whom  we  have 
loved  so  well ;  tell  her  we  shall  meet  again  in  the  good 
land;  tell  her  to  bear  my  loss  like  the  Christian  wife 
of  a  Christian  soldier  " —  and  of  Mrs.  Shelton,  into 
whose  face  the  convalescent  soldier  looked,  and  said: 
"  Your  grapes  and  cologne  cured  me."  And  so  it 
was  also  through  all  of  our  war  with  Spain  —  women 
heroic  on  the  field,  braving  death  and  wounds  to  reach 
the  fallen,  watching  by  their  fever  cots  in  the  West 
Indian  hospitals  or  on  the  troopships  or  in  our  smitten 
home  camps.  Men  did  their  work  with  shot  and  shell 
and  carbine  and  howitzer;  women  did  their  work  with 

VOL.  XI.  83 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

socks  and  slippers  and  bandages  and  warm  drinks 
and  Scripture  texts  and  gentle  strokings  of  the  hot 
temples  and  stories  of  that  land  where  they  never  have 
any  pain.  Men  knelt  down  over  the  wounded  and 
said,  "  On  which  side  did  you  fight?  "  Women  knelt 
down  over  the  wounded  and  said,  "  Where  are  you 
hurt?  What  nice  thing  can  I  make  for  you  to  eat? 
What  makes  you  cry?  "  To-night,  while  we  men  are 
sound  asleep  in  our  beds,  there  will  be  a  light  in  yon- 
der loft;  there  will  be  groaning  down  that  dark  alley; 
there  will  be  cries  of  distress  in  that  cellar.  Men  will 
sleep,  and  women  will  watch. 

Again:  woman  has  a  special  right  to  take  care  of 
the  poor.  There  are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  them 
all  over  the  land.  There  is  a  kind  of  work  that  men 
cannot  do  for  the  poor.  Here  comes  a  group  of  little 
barefoot  children  to  the  door  of  the  Dorcas  Society. 
They  need  to  be  clothed  and  provided  for.  Which  of 
these  directors  of  banks  would  know  how  many  yards 
it  would  take  to  make  that  little  girl  a  dress?  Which 
of  these  masculine  hands  could  fit  a  hat  to  that  little 
girl's  head?  Which  of  the  wise  men  would  know  how 
to  tie  on  that  new  pair  of  shoes?  Man  sometimes 
gives  his  charity  in  a  rough  way,  and  it  falls  like  the 
fruit  of  a  tree  in  the  East,  which  fruit  comes  down  so 
heavily  that  it  breaks  the  skull  of  the  man  trying  to 
gather  it.  But  woman  glides  so  softly  into  the  house 
of  destitution,  and  finds  out  all  the  sorrows  of  the 
place,  and  puts  so  quietly  the  donation  on  the  table, 
that  all  the  family  come  out  on  the  front  steps  as  she 
departs,  expecting  that  from  under  her  shawl  she  will 
thrust  out  two  wings  and  go  right  up  toward  heaven, 
from  whence  she  seems  to  have  come  down. 

O,  Christian  young  woman!  if  you  would  make 
yourself  happy,  and  win  the  blessing  of  Christ,  go  out 
among  the  destitute.    A  loaf  of  bread  or  a  bundle  of 

84  VOL.  XI. 


The  Queens  of  Home 

socks  may  make  a  homely  load  to  carry,  but  the  angels 
of  God  will  come  out  to  watch,  and  the  Lord  Almighty 
will  give  His  messenger  hosts  a  charge,  saying, 
"  Look  after  that  woman ;  canopy  her  with  your  wings, 
and  shelter  her  from  all  harm ; "  and  while  you  are 
seated  in  the  house  of  destitution  and  suffering,  the 
little  ones  around  the  room  will  whisper,  "  Who  is 
she?  Ain't  she  beautiful!  "  and  if  you  will  listen  right 
sharply,  you  will  hear  dripping  down  through  the 
leaky  roof,  and  rolling  over  the  rotten  stairs,  the  angel 
chant  that  shook  Bethlehem :  "  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  to  men." 

Can  you  tell  me  why  a  Christian  woman,  going 
down  among  the  haunts  of  iniquity,  on  a  Christian  er- 
rand, never  meets  with  any  indignity?  I  stood  in  the 
chapel  of  Helen  Chalmers,  the  daughter  of  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Chalmers,  in  the  most  abandoned  part  of 
the  city  of  Edinburgh,  and  I  said  to  her  as  I  looked 
around  upon  the  fearful  surroundings  of  that  place, 
"  Do  you  come  here  nights  to  hold  a  service?  "  "  O, 
yes,"  she  said.  "  Can  it  be  possible  that  you  never 
meet  with  an  insult  while  performing  this  Christian 
errand?"  "  Never,"  she  said,  "  never."  That  young 
woman  who  has  her  father  by  her  side,  walking  down 
the  street,  armed  police  at  each  corner,  is  not  so  well 
defended  as  that  Christian  woman  who  goes  forth  on 
Gospel  work  into  the  haunts  of  iniquity,  carrying  the 
Bibles  and  bread.  God,  with  the  red  right  arm  of 
his  wrath  omnipotent,  would  tear  to  pieces  any  one 
who  should  oflfer  indignity  to  her.  He  would  smite 
him  with  lightnings  and  drown  him  with  floods  and 
swallow  him  with  earthquakes  and  damn  him  with 
eternal  indignations.  Some  one  said :  "  I  dislike  very 
much  to  see  that  Christian  woman  teaching  those  bad 
boys  in  the  mission  school.  I  am  afraid  to  have  her 
VOL.  XI.  85 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

instruct  them."  "  So,"  said  another  man,  "  I  am 
afraid,  too."  Said  the  first:  "I  am  afraid  they  will 
use  vile  language  before  they  leave  the  place."  "  Ah," 
said  the  other  man,  "  I  am  not  afraid  of  that.  What 
I  am  afraid  of  is,  that  if  any  of  those  boys  should  use 
a  bad  word  in  her  presence,  the  other  boys  would  tear 
him  to  pieces  and  kill  him  on  the  spot."  That  woman 
is  the  best  sheltered  who  is  sheltered  by  the  Lord  God 
Almighty,  and  you  need  never  fear  going  anywhere 
where  God  tells  you  to  go. 

It  seems  as  if  the  Lord  had  ordained  woman  for 
an  especial  work  in  the  solicitation  of  charities. 
Backed  up  by  barrels  in  which  there  is  no  flour,  and 
by  stoves  in  which  there  is  no  fire,  and  by  wardrobes 
in  which  there  are  no  clothes,  a  woman  is  irresistible; 
passing  on  her  errand,  God  says  to  her:  "You  go 
into  that  bank  or  store  or  shop  and  get  the  money." 
She  goes  in  and  gets  it.  The  man  is  hard-fisted,  but 
she  gets  it.  She  could  not  help  but  get  it.  It  is  de- 
creed from  eternity  she  should  get  it.  No  need  of 
your  turning  your  back  and  pretending  you  don't  hear; 
you  do  hear.  There  is  no  need  of  your  saying  you  are 
begged  to  death.  There  is  no  need  of  your  wasting 
your  time,  and  you  might  as  well  submit  first  as  last. 
You  had  better  right  away  take  down  your  check- 
book, mark  the  number  of  the  check,  fill  up  the  blank, 
sign  your  name,  and  hand  it  to  her.  There  is  no  need 
of  wasting  time.  Those  poor  children  on  the  back 
street  have  been  hungry  long  enough.  That  sick  man 
must  have  some  farina.  That  consumptive  must  have 
something  to  ease  his  cough.  I  meet  this  delegate  of 
a  relief  society  coming  out  of  the  store  of  such  a  hard- 
fisted  man,  and  I  say:.  "Did  you  get  the  money?" 
"  Of  course,"  she  says,  "  I  got  the  money;  that's  what 
I  went  for.  The  Lord  told  me  to  go  in  and  get  it,  and 
he  never  sends  me  on  a  fool's  errand." 

86  VOL.  XI 


The  Queens  of  Home 

"  Again :  I  have  to  tell  you  that  it  is  a  woman's 
specific  right  to  comfort  under  the  stress  of  dire  dis- 
aster. She  is  called  the  weaker  vessel;  but  all  pro- 
fane as  well  as  sacred  history  attests  that  when  the 
crisis  comes  she  is  better  prepared  than  man  to  meet 
the  emergency.  How  often  you  have  seen  a  woman 
who  seemed  to  be  a  disciple  of  frivolity  and  indolence, 
who,  under  one  stroke  of  calamity,  changed  to  a  hero- 
ine. Oh,  what  a  great  mistake  those  business  men 
make  who  never  tell  their  business  troubles  to  their 
wives!  There  comes  some  great  loss  to  their  store, 
or  some  of  their  companions  in  business  play  them  a 
sad  trick,  and  they  carry  the  burden  all  alone.  He  is 
asked  in  the  household  again  and  again :  What  is  the 
matter?  But  he  believes  it  a  sort  of  Christian  duty  to 
keep  all  that  trouble  within  his  own  soul.  Oh,  sir! 
your  first  duty  was  to  tell  your  wife  all  about  it.  She, 
perhaps  might  not  have  disentangled  your  finances, 
or  extended  your  credit,  but  she  would  have  helped 
you  to  bear  misfortune.  You  have  no  right  to  carry 
on  one  shoulder  that  which  is  intended  for  two.  Busi- 
ness men  know  what  I  mean.  There  came  a  crisis  in 
your  affairs.  You  struggled  bravely  and  long;  but 
after  a  while  there  came  a  day  when  you  said,  "  Here 
I  shall  have  to  stop ;  "  and  you  called  in  your  partners, 
and  you  called  in  the  most  prominent  men  in  your  em- 
ploy, and  you  said :  "  We  have  got  to  stop."  You 
left  the  store  suddenly.  You  could  hardly  make  up 
your  mind  to  pass  through  the  street  and  over  on  the 
ferry-boat.  You  felt  everybody  would  be  looking  at 
you  and  blaming  you  and  denouncing  you.  You 
hastened  home.  You  told  your  wife  all  about  the 
affair.  What  did  she  say?  Did  she  play  the  butter- 
fly?  Did  she  talk  about  the  silks  and  the  ribbons  and 
the  fashions?  No.  She  came  up  to  the  emergency. 
She  quailed  not  under  the  stroke.     She  offered  to  go 

VOL.  XI.  87 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

out  of  the  comfortable  house  into  a  smaller  one,  and 
wear  the  old  cloak  another  winter.  She  was  the  one 
who  understood  your  affairs  without  blaming  you. 
You  looked  upon  what  you  thought  was  a  thin,  weak 
woman's  arm  holding  you  up;  but  while  you  looked 
at  that  arm,  there  came  into  the  feeble  muscles  of  it 
the  strength  of  the  eternal  God.  No  chiding.  No 
fretting.  No  telling  you  about  the  beautiful  house  of 
her  father,  from  which  you  brought  her  ten,  twenty,  or 
thirty  years  ago..  You  said:  "  Well,  this  is  the  hap- 
piest day  of  my  life.  I  am  glad  I  have  got  from  under 
my  burden.  My  wife  don't  care  —  I  don't  care."  At 
the  moment  you  were  exhausted,  God  sent  a  Deborah 
to  meet  the  host  of  the  Amalekites  and  scatter  them 
like  chaflf  over  the  plain.  There  are  sometimes  women 
who  sit  reading  sentimental  novels,  and  who  wish 
that  they  had  some  grand  field  in  which  to  display  their 
Christian  powers.  What  grand  and  glorious  things 
they  could  do  if  they  only  had  an  opportunity!  My 
sister,  you  need  not  wait  for  any  such  time.  A  crisis 
will  come  in  your  affairs.  There  will  be  a  Ther- 
mopylae in  your  own  household  where  God  will  tell 
you  to  stand.  There  are  'scores  and  hundreds  of 
households  to-day  where  as  much  bravery  and  courage 
are  demanded  of  women  as  was  exhibited  by  Grace 
Darling  or  Marie  Antoinette  or  Joan  of  Arc. 

Again:  I  remark  it  is  woman's  right  to  bring  us 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It  is  easier  for  a  woman  to 
be  a  Christian  than  for  a  man.  Why?  You  say  she 
is  weaker.  No.  Her  heart  is  more  responsive  to  the 
pleadings  of  divine  love.  She  is  in  vast  majority. 
The  fact  that  she  can  more  easily  become  a  Christian, 
I  prove  by  the  statement  that  three-fourths  of  the 
members  of  the  churches  in  all  Christendom  are  wo- 
men. So  God  appoints  them  to  be  the  chief  agencies 
for  bringing  this  world  back  to  God.     I  may  stand 

88  VOL.  XI. 


The  Queens  of  Home 

here  and  say  the  soul  is  immortal.  There  is  a  man 
who  will  deny  it.  I  may  stand  here  and  say  we  are 
lost  and  undone  without  Christ.  There  is  a  man  who 
will  contradict  it.  I  may  stand  here  and  say  there  will 
be  a  judgment  day  after  a  while.  Yonder  is  some 
one  who  will  dispute  it.  But  a  Christian  woman  in 
a  Christian  household,  living  in  the  faith  and  the  con- 
sistency of  Christ's  gospel  —  nobody  can  refute  that. 
The  greatest  sermons  are  not  preached  on  celebrated 
platforms;  they  are  preached  with  an  audience  of  two 
or  three,  and  in  private  home  life.  A  consistent,  con- 
secrated Christian  service  is  an  unanswerable  demon- 
stration of  God's  truth. 

A  sailor  came  slipping  down  the  ratlines  one  night, 
as  though  something  had  happened,  and  the  sailors 
cried:  "What's  the  matter?"  He  said:  "My 
mother's  prayers  haunt  me  like  a  ghost."  Home  in- 
fluences, consecrated  Christian  home  influences,  are 
the  mightiest  of  all  influences  upon  the  soul.  There 
are  men  who  have  maintained  their  integrity,  not  be- 
cause they  were  any  better  naturally  than  some  other 
people,  but  because  there  were  home  influences  pray- 
ing for  them  all  the  time.  They  got  a  good  start. 
They  were  launched  on  the  world  with  the  benedic- 
tions of  a  Christian  mother.  They  may  track  Siberian 
snows,  they  may  plunge  in  African  jungles,  they  may 
flee  to  the  earth's  end  —  they  cannot  go  so  far  and  so 
fast  but  the  prayers  will  keep  up  with  them. 

Speak  to  women  who  have  the  eternal  salvation 
of  their  husbands  in  their  right  hand.  On  the  mar- 
riage day  you  took  an  oath  before  men  and  angels  that 
you  would  be  faithful  and  kind  until  death  did  you 
part,  and  I  believe  you  are  going  to  keep  that  oath; 
but  after  that  parting  at  the  grave,  will  it  be  an  eternal 
separation?  Is  there  any  such  thing  as  an  immortal 
marriage,  making  the  flowers  that  grow  on  the  top  of 

VOL.  XI.  89 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  sepulcher  brighter  than  the  garlands  which  at  the 
marriage  banquet  flooded  the  air  with  aroma?  Yes; 
I  stand  here  as  an  ambassador  of  the  most  high  God, 
to  proclaim  the  banns  of  an  immortal  union  for  all 
those  who  join  hands  in  the  grace  of  Christ.  O  wo- 
man, is  your  husband,  your  father,  your  son,  away 
from  God?  The  Lord  demands  their  redemption  at 
your  hands.  There  are  prayers  for  you  to  ofifer,  there 
are  exhortations  for  you  to  give,  there  are  examples 
for  you  to  set,  and  I  say  now,  as  Paul  said  to  the 
Corinthian  woman:  "What  knowest  thou,  but  thou 
shalt  save  thy  husband?"  A  man  was  dying;  and  he 
said  to  his  wife:  "  Rebecca,  you  wouldn't  let  me  have 
family  prayers;  you  laughed  about  all  that,  and  you 
got  me  away  into  worldliness;  and  now  I'm  going  to 
die,  and  my  fate  is  sealed,  and  you  are  the  cause  of 
my  ruin?"  O  woman,  what  knowest  thou  but  thou 
canst  destroy  thy  husband? 

Are  there  not  some  of  you  who  have  kindly  in- 
fluences at  home?  Are  there  not  some  who  have  wan- 
dered far  away  from  God,  who  can  remember  the 
Christian  influences  in  their  early  home?  Do  not  de- 
spise those  influences,  my  brother.  If  you  die  with- 
out Christ  what  will  you  do  with  your  mother's  pray- 
ers, with  your  wife's  importunities,  with  your  sister's 
entreaties?  What  will  you  do  with  the  letters  they 
used  to  write  to  you,  with  the  memory  of  those  days 
when  they  attended  you  so  kindly  in  times  of  sick- 
ness? Oh,  if  there  be  just  one  strand  holding  you 
from  floating  oflf  on  that  dark  sea,  I  would  just  like 
to  take  hold  of  that  strand  now  and  pull  you  to  the 
beach!  For  the  sake  of  your  wife's  God,  for  the  sake 
of  your  mother's  God,  for  the  sake  of  your  daughter's 
God,  for  the  sake  of  your  sister's  God,  come  this  day 
and  be  saved. 

Lastly :    I  wish  to  say  that  one  of  the  specific  rights 

90  VOL.  XI. 


The  Queens  of  Home 

of  woman  is,  through  the  grace  of  Christ,  finally  to 
reach  heaven.  Oh,  what  a  multitude  of  women  in 
heaven!  Mary,  Christ's  mother,  in  heaven,  EHzabeth 
Fry  in  heaven,  Charlotte  Elizabeth  in  heaven,  the 
mother  of  Augustine  in  heaven,  the  Countess  of  Hunt- 
ingdon —  who  sold  her  splendid  jewels  to  build  chapels 
—  in  heaven,  while  a  great  many  others,  who  have 
never  been  heard  of  on  earth,  or  known  but  little,  have 
gone  into  the  rest  and  peace  of  heaven.  What  a  rest! 
What  a  change  it  was  from  the  small  room,  with  no 
fire  and  one  window  (the  glass  broken  out),  and  the 
aching  side  and  worn-out  eyes,  to  the  "  house  of  many 
mansions !  "  No  more  stitching  until  twelve  o'clock 
at  night,  no  more  thrusting  of  the  thumb  by  the  em- 
ployer through  the  work,  to  show  it  was  not  done  quite 
right.  Plenty  of  bread  at  last!  Heaven  for  aching 
heads!  heaven  for  broken  hearts!  heaven  for  anguish- 
bitten  frames!  No  more  sitting  up  until  midnight  for 
the  coming  of  staggering  steps!  No  more  rough 
blows  across  the  temples!  No  more  sharp,  keen,  bit- 
ter curses! 

Some  of  you  will  have  no  rest  in  this  world.  It 
will  be  toil  and  struggle  and  suffering  all  the  way  up. 
You  will  have  to  stand  at  your  door  fighting  back  the 
wolf  with  your  own  hand,  red  with  carnage.  But  God 
has  a  crown  for  you.  I  want  you  to  realize  this  morn- 
ing that  he  is  now  making  it,  and  whenever  you  weep 
a  tear,  he  sets  another  gem  in  that  crown;  whenever 
you  have  a  pang  of  body  or  soul,  he  puts  another 
gem  in  that  crown;  until,  after  a  while,  in  all  the  tiara 
there  will  be  no  room  for  another  splendor,  and  God 
will  say  to  his  angel,  "The  crown  is  done;  let  her  up, 
that  she  may  wear  it."  And  as  the  Lord  of  Righteous- 
ness puts  the  crown  upon  your  brow,  angel  will  cry 
to  angel,  "  Who  is  she?  "  and  Christ  will  say,  "  I  will 
tell  you  who  she  is.  She  is  the  one  that  came  up  out 
VOL.  XI.  91 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

of  great  tribulation,  and  had  her  robe  washed  and  made 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  And  then  God  will 
spread  a  banquet,  and  he  will  invite  all  the  principali- 
ties of  heaven  to  sit  at  the  feast,  and  the  tables  will 
blush  with  the  best  clusters  from  the  vineyards  of  God 
and  crimson  with  the  twelve  manner  of  fruits  from  the 
Tree  of  Life,  and  waters  from  the  fountains  of  the  rock 
will  flash  from  the  golden  tankards,  and  the  old  harp- 
ers of  heaven  will  sit  there,  making  music  with  their 
harps,  and  Christ  will  point  you  out,  amid  the  celebri- 
ties of  heaven,  saying :  "  She  suflFered  with  me  on 
earth,  now  we  are  going  to  be  glorified  together." 
And  the  banqueters,  no  longer  able  to  hold  their  peace, 
will  break  forth  with  congratulation:  "Hail!  hail!" 
And  there  will  be  handwritings  on  the  wall  —  not  such 
as  struck  the  Babylonian  noblemen  with  horror  —  but 
fire-tipped  fingers,  writing  in  blazing  capitals  of  light 
and  love,  "  God  hath  wiped  away  all  tears  from  all 
faces!" 


92  VOL.  XI. 


WOMAN'S  HAPPINESS 

I   Timothy,  5:   6:     "She  that   liveth   in   pleasure   is   dead 
while    she   liveth." 


WOMAN'S  HAPPINESS 

I  Timothy,  5:  6:     "She  that  liveth  in   pleasure   is  dead 
while    she   liveth." 

The  editor  of  a  Boston  newspaper  some  time  ago 
wrote  asking  me  the  terse  questions:  "What  is  the 
road  to  happiness?"  and  "Ought  happiness  to  be  the 
chief  aim  of  life?"  My  answer  was:  "The  road  to 
happiness  is  the  continuous  eflfort  to  make  others 
happy.  The  chief  aim  of  Ufe  ought  to  be  usefulness, 
not  happiness;  but  happiness  always  follows  useful- 
ness." This  morning's  text  in  a  strong  way  sets  forth 
the  truth  that  a  woman  who  seeks  in  worldly  advan- 
tage her  chief  enjoyment,  will  come  to  disappointment 
and  death.  "She  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while 
she  liveth." 

My  friends,  you  all  want  to  be  happy.  You  have 
had  a  great  many  recipes  by  which  it  is  proposed  to 
give  you  satisfaction — solid  satisfaction.  At  times  you 
feel  a  thorough  unrest.  You  know  as  well  as  older 
people  what  it  is  to  be  depressed.  As  dark  shadows 
sometimes  fall  upon  the  geography  of  the  schoolgirl 
as  on  the  page  of  the  spectacled  philosopher.  I  have 
seen  as  cloudy  days  in  May  as  in  November.  There 
are  no  deeper  sighs  breathed  by  the  grandmother  than 
by  the  granddaughter.  I  correct  the  popular  im- 
pression that  people  are  happier  in  childhood  and 
youth  than  they  ever  will  be  again.  If  we  live  aright ; 
the  older,  the  happier.  The  happiest  woman  that  I 
ever  knew  was  a  Christian  octogenarian ;  her  hair 
white  as  white  could  be ;  the  sunlight  of  heaven  late 
in  the  afternoon  gilding  the  peaks  of  snow.  I  have  to 
VOL.  XI.  95 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

say  to  a  great  many  of  the  young  people  that  the  most 
miserable  time  you  are  ever  to  have  is  just  now.  As 
you  advance  in  life,  as  you  come  out  into  the  world 
and  have  your  head  and  heart  full  of  good,  honest, 
practical  Christian  work,  then  you  will  know  what  it 
is  to  begin  to  be  happy.  There  are  those  who  would 
have  us  believe  that  life  is  chasing  thistle-down  and 
grasping  bubbles.  We  have  not  found  it  so.  To  many 
of  us  it  has  been  discovering  diamonds  larger  than  the 
Kohinoor ;  and  I  think  that  our  joy  will  continue  to  in- 
crease until  nothing  short  of  the  everlasting  jubilee  of 
heaven  will  be  able  to  express  it. 

Horatio  Greenough,  at  the  close  of  the  hardest  life 
a  man  ever  lives — the  life  of  an  American  artist — 
wrote :  "I  don't  want  to  leave  this  world  until  I  give 
some  sign  that,  born  by  the  grace  of  God  in  this  land, 
I  have  found  life  to  be  a  very  cheerful  thing,  and  not 
the  dark  and  bitter  thing  with  which  my  early  pros- 
pects were  clouded."  Albert  Barnes,  the  good  Chris- 
tian, known  the  world  over,  stood  in  his  pulpit  in  Phil- 
adelphia, at  seventy  or  eighty  years  of  age,  and  said : 
"This  world  is  so  very  attractive  to  me,  I  am  very 
sorry  I  shall  have  to  leave  it."  I  know  that  Solomon 
said  some  very  dolorous  things  about  this  world,  and 
three  times  declared :  "Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  van- 
ity." Yet  I  do  not  think  that  Solomon  was  there  de- 
claring a  doctrine.  I  think  he  was  giving  his  own  per- 
sonal experience.  I  suppose  his  seven  hundred  wives 
almost  pestered  the  life  out  of  him.  But  I  would 
rather  turn  to  the  description  he  gave  after  his  conver- 
sion, when  he  says  in  another  place:  "Her  ways  are 
ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace."  It 
is  reasonable  to  expect  it  will  be  so.  The  longer 
the  fruit  hangs  on  the  tree,  the  riper  and  more  mellow 
it  ought  to  grow. 

Hear,  then,  while  I  discourse  upon  some  of  the 

96  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

mistakes  which  young  people  make  in  regard  to  happi- 
ness, and  point  out  to  the  young  women  what  I  con- 
sider to  be  the  source  of  complete  satisfaction. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  I  advise  you  not  to  build 
your  happiness  upon  mere  social  position.  Persons 
at  your  age,  looking  oflf  upon  life,  are  apt  to  think  that 
if,  by  some  stroke  of  what  is  called  good  luck,  you 
could  arrive  at  an  elevated  and  affluent  position,  a  little 
higher  than  that  in  which  God  has  called  you  to  live, 
you  would  be  completely  happy.  Infinite  mistake! 
The  palace  floor  of  Ahasuerus  is  red  with  the  blood  of 
Vashti's  broken  heart.  There  have  been  no  more 
scalding  tears  wept  than  those  which  coursed  the 
cheeks  of  Josephine.  If  the  sob  of  unhappy  woman- 
hood in  the  great  cities  could  break  through  the  tapes- 
tried wall,  that  sob  would  come  along  your  streets  to- 
day like  the  simoon  of  the  desert.  Sometimes  I  have 
heard  in  the  rustling  of  the  robes  on  the  city  pave- 
ment the  hiss  of  the  adders  that  followed  in  the  wake. 
You  have  come  out  from  your  home,  and  you  have 
looked  up  at  the  great  house  and  coveted  a  life  under 
those  arches;  when  perhaps,  at  that  very  moment, 
within  that  house,  there  may  have  been  the  wringing 
of  hands,  the  start  of  horror,  and  the  very  agony  of 
hell.  I  knew  of  such  an  one.  Her  father's  house  was 
plain ;  most  of  the  people  who  came  there  were  plain ; 
but,  by  a  change  in  fortune  such  as  sometimes  comes, 
a  hand  had  been  offered  that  led  her  into  a  brilliant 
sphere.  All  the  neighbors  congratulated  her  upon  her 
grand  prospects ;  but  what  an  exchange !  On  her  side 
it  was  a  heart  full  of  generous  impulse  and  aflfection. 
On  his  side  it  was  a  soul  dry  and  withered  as  the  stub- 
ble of  the  field.  On  her  side  it  was  a  father's  house, 
where  God  was  honored  and  the  Sabbath  light  flooded 
the  rooms  with  the  very  mirth  of  heaven.  On  his  side 
it  was  a  gorgeous  residence  and  the  coming  of  mighty 
VOL.  XI.  97 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

men  to  be  entertained  there ;  but  within  it  were  revelry 
and  godlessness.  Hardly  had  the  orange  blossoms  of 
the  marriage  feast  lost  their  fragrance  than  the  night 
of  discontent  began  to  cast  its  shadow.  Cruelties  and 
unkindnesses  changed  all  those  splendid  trappings  into 
a  hollow  mockery.  The  platters  of  solid  silver,  the 
caskets  of  pure  gold,  the  headdress  of  gleaming  dia- 
monds, were  there;  but  no  God,  no  peace,  no  kind 
words,  no  Christian  sympathy.  The  festal  music  that 
broke  on  the  captive's  ear  turned  out  to  be  a  dirge,  and 
the  wreath  in  the  plush  was  a  reptile  coil,  and  the  up- 
holstery that  swayed  in  the  wind  was  the  wing  of  a  de- 
stroying angel,  and  the  bead-drops  on  the  pitcher  were 
the  sweat  of  everlasting  despair. 

Oh,  how  many  rivalries  and  unhappinesses  among 
those  who  seek  in  social  life  their  chief  happiness !  It 
matters  not  how  fine  you  have  things,  there  are  other 
people  who  have  them  finer.  Taking  out  your  watch 
to  tell  the  hour  of  day,  some  one  will  correct  your 
timepiece  by  pulling  out  a  watch  more  richly  chased 
and  jeweled.  Ride  in  a  carriage  that  cost  you  eight 
hundred  dollars,  and  before  you  get  around  that  park 
you  will  meet  one  that  cost  two  thousand  dollars. 
Have  on  your  wall  a  picture  by  Copley,  and  before 
night  you  will  hear  of  some  one  who  has  a  picture 
fresh  from  the  studio  of  Church  or  Bierstadt.  All  that 
this  world  can  do  for  you  in  silver,  in  gold,  in  Axmin- 
ster  plush,  in  Gobelin  tapestry,  in  wide  halls,  in  lordly 
acquaintanceship,  will  not  give  you  the  ten-thou- 
sandth part  of  a  grain  of  solid  satisfaction.  The  Eng- 
lish lord,  moving  in  the  very  highest  sphere,  was  one 
day  found  seated  with  his  chin  on  his  hand  and  his 
elbow  on  the  window-sill,  looking  out  and  saying: 
"  Oh,  I  wish  I  could  exchange  places  with  that  dog!  " 
Mere  social  position  will  never  give  happiness  to  a 
woman's  soul.     I  have  had  wide  and  continuous  ob- 

98  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

servation,  and  I  tell  young  women  that  they  who 
build  on  mere  social  position  their  soul's  immortal 
happiness  are  building  on  the  sand. 

Suppose  that  a  young  woman  expends  the  bright- 
ness of  her  early  life  in  this  unsatisfactory  struggle  and 
omits  the  present  opportunity  of  usefulness  in  the 
home  circle :  what  a  mistake !  So  surely  as  the  years 
roll  around,  that  home  in  which  you  now  dwell  will 
become  extinct.  The  parents  will  be  gone,  the  prop- 
erty will  go  into  other  possession,  you  yourself  will 
be  in  other  relationships,  and  that  home  which  only  a 
year  before  was  full  of  congratulation  will  be  extin- 
guished. When  that  period  comes  you  will  look  back 
to  see  what  you  did  or  what  you  neglected  to  do  in 
the  way  of  making  home  happy.  It  will  be  too  late  to 
correct  mistakes.  If  you  did  not  smooth  the  path  of 
your  parents  toward  the  tomb;  if  you  did  not  make 
their  last  days  bright  and  happy;  if  you  allowed  your 
younger  brother  to  go  out  into  the  world  unhallowed 
by  Christian  and  sisterly  influences ;  if  you  allowed  the 
younger  sisters  of  your  family  to  come  up  without  feel- 
ing that  there  had  been  a  Christian  example  set  them 
on  your  part — there  will  be  nothing  but  bitterness  of 
lamentation.  That  bitterness  will  be  increased  by  all 
the  surroundings  of  that  home ;  by  every  chair,  by 
every  picture,  by  the  old-time  mantel  ornamerrts,  by 
everything  you  can  think  of  as  connected  with  that 
home.  All  these  things  will  rouse  up  agonizing  mem- 
ories. Young  woman,  have  you  anything  to  do  in  the 
way  of  making  your  father's  home  happy?  Now  is 
the  time  to  attend  to  it,  or  leave  it  forever  undone. 
Time  is  flying  very  quickly  away.  I  suppose  you  no- 
tice the  wrinkles  are  gathering  and  accumulating  on 
those  kindly  faces  that  have  so  long  looked  upon  you ; 
there  is  frost  in  the  locks ;  the  foot  is  not  as  firm  in  its 
step  as  it  used  to  be ;  and  they  will  soon  be  gone.  The 
VOL.  XI.  99 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

heaviest  clod  that  ever  falls  on  a  parent's  coffin-lid  is 
the  memory  of  an  ungrateful  daughter.  Oh,  make 
their  last  days  bright  and  beautiful.  Do  not  act  as 
though  they  were  in  the  way.  Ask  their  counsel,  seek 
their  prayers;  and  after  long  years  have  passed,  and 
you  go  out  to  see  the  grave  where  they  sleep,  you  will 
find  growing  all  over  the  mound  something  lovelier 
than  cypress,  something  sweeter  than  the  rose,  some- 
thing chaster  than  the  lily — the  bright  and  beautiful 
memories  of  filial  kindness  performed  ere  the  dying 
hand  dropped  on  you  a  benediction,  and  you  closed  the 
lids  over  the  weary  eyes  of  the  worn-out  pilgrim.  Bet- 
ter that,  in  the  hour  of  your  birth,  you  had  been  struck 
with  orphanage,  and  that  you  had  been  handed  over 
into  the  cold  arms  of  the  world,  rather  than  that  you 
should  have  been  brought  up  under  a  father's  care  and 
a  mother's  tenderness,  at  last  to  scoff  at  their  example 
and  deride  their  influence;  and  on  the  day  when  you 
follow  them  in  long  procession  to  the  tomb,  to  find 
that  you  are  followed  by  a  still  larger  procession  of  un- 
filial  deeds  done  and  wrong  words  uttered.  The  one 
procession  will  leave  its  burden  in  the  tomb  and  dis- 
band; but  that  longer  procession  of  unhappy  mem- 
ories will  forever  march  and  forever  wail.  Oh,  it  is  a 
good  time  for  a  young  woman  when  she  is  in  her 
father's  house.  How  careful  they  are  of  her  welfare! 
How  watchful  those  parents  of  all  her  interests! 
Seated  at  the  morning  repast,  father  at  one  end  of  the 
table,  children  on  each  side  and  between;  but  the 
years  will  roll  on,  and  great  changes  will  be  effected, 
and  one  will  be  missed  from  one  end  of  the  table,  and 
another  will  be  missed  from  the  other  end  of  the  table. 
God  pity  that  young  woman's  soul  who,  in  that  hour, 
has  nothing  but  regretful  recollections. 

I  go  further,  and  advise  you  not  to  depend  for  en- 
joyment upon  mere  personal  attractions.    It  would  be 

100  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

sheer  hyprocrisy,  because  we  may  not  have  it  our- 
selves, to  despise  or  affect  to  despise  beauty  in  others. 
When  God  gives  it,  he  gives  it  as  a  blessing  and  as  a 
means  of  usefulness.  David  and  his  army  were  coming 
down  from  the  mountains  to  destroy  Nabal  and  his 
flocks  and  vineyards.  The  beautiful  Abigail,  the  wife 
of  Nabal,  went  out  to  arrest  him  when  he  came  down 
from  the  mountains,  and  she  succeeded.  Coming  to 
the  foot  of  the  hill,  she  knelt.  David  with  his  army  of 
sworn  men  came  down  over  the  cliffs,  and  when  he  saw 
her  kneeling  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  he  cried  "Halt !"  to 
his  men,  and  the  caves  echoed  it,  "Halt !  halt !"  That 
one  beautiful  woman  kneeling  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff 
had  arrested  all  those  armed  troops.  A  dewdrop 
dashed  back  Niagara.  The  Bible  sets  before  us  the 
portraits  of  Sarah  and  Rebecca  and  Abishag  and  Job's 
daughters,  and  says :  "They  were  fair  to  look  upon." 
By  outdoor  exercise,  and  by  skilful  arrangement  of 
apparel,  let  women  make  themselves  attractive.  The 
sloven  has  only  one  mission,  and  that  is  to  excite  our 
loathing  and  disgust.  But  alas  for  those  who  depend 
upon  personal  charms  for  their  happiness !  Beauty  is 
such  a  subtile  thing,  it  does  not  seem  to  depend  upon 
facial  proportions  or  upon  the  sparkle  of  the  eye  or 
upon  the  flush  of  the  cheek.  You  sometimes  find  it 
among  irregular  features.  It  is  the  soul  shining 
through  the  face  that  makes  one  beautiful.  But  alas 
for  those  who  depend  upon  mere  personal  charms ! 
They  will  come  to  disappointment  and  to  a  great  fret. 
There  are  so  many  different  opinions  about  what  are 
personal  charms ;  and  then  sickness  and  trouble  and 
age  do  make  such  ravages!  The  poorest  god  that  a 
woman  ever  worships  is  her  own  face.  The  saddest 
sight  in  all  the  world  is  a  woman  who  has  built  every- 
thing on  good  looks,  when  the  charms  begin  to  vanish. 
Oh,  how  they  try  to  cover  the  wrinkles  and  hide  the 

VOL.  XI.  lOI 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ravages  of  Time!  When  Time,  with  iron-shod  feet, 
steps  on  a  face,  the  footprints  remain,  and  you  cannot 
hide  them.  It  is  silly  to  try  to  hide  them.  I  think  the 
most  repulsive  fool  in  all  the  world  is  an  old  fool. 
Why,  my  friends,  should  you  be  ashamed  of  getting 
old?  It  is  a  sign — it  is  prima  facie  evidence — that  you 
have  behaved  tolerably  well,  or  you  would  not  have 
lived  to  this  time.  The  grandest  thing,  I  think,  is  eter- 
nity, and  that  is  made  up  of  countless  years.  When 
the  Bible  would  set  forth  the  attractiveness  of  Jesus 
Christ,  it  says:  "His  hair  was  white  as  snow."  But 
when  the  color  goes  from  the  cheek,  and  the  luster 
from  the  eye,  and  the  spring  from  the  step,  and  the 
gracefulness  from  the  gait,  alas  for  those  who  have 
built  their  time  and  their  eternity  upon  good  lool^s! 
But  all  the  passage  of  years  cannot  take  out  of  one's 
face  benignity  and  kindness  and  compassion  and  faith. 
Cultivate  your  heart  and  you  cultivate  your  face.  The 
brightest  glory  that  ever  beamed  from  a  woman's  face 
is  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

During  our  Civil  War  two  hundred  wounded  sol- 
diers came  to  Philadelphia  one  night,  and  came  un- 
heralded, and  we  had  to  extemporize  a  hospital  for 
them ;  and  the  Christian  women  of  my  church,  and  of 
other  churches,  went  out  that  night  to  take  care  of  the 
poor,  wounded  fellows.  That  night  I  saw  a  Christian 
woman  in  the  wards  of  the  hospital,  her  sleeves  rolled 
up,  ready  for  hard  work,  her  hair  disheveled  in  the  ex- 
citement of  the  hour.  Her  face  was  plain,  very  plain  ; 
but  after  the  wounds  were  washed  and  the  new  band- 
ages were  put  around  the  splintered  limbs,  and  the  ex- 
hausted boy  fell  off  into  his  first  refreshing  sleep,  she 
put  her  hand  on  his  brow  and  he  started  in  his  dream, 
and  said:  "Oh,  I  thought  an  angel  touched  me!" 
There  may  have  been  no  classic  elegance  in  the  fea- 
tures of  Mrs.  Harris,  who  came  into  the  hospital  after 

102  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

the  "Seven  Days"  awful  fight,  as  she  sat  down  by  a 
wounded  drummer-boy  and  heard  him  soliloquize: 
"A  ball  through  my  body,  and  my  poor  mother  will 
never  again  see  her  boy.  What  a  pity  "it  is !"  And  she 
leaned  over  him  and  said :  "Shall  I  be  your  mother, 
and  comfort  you?"  And  he  looked  up  and  said: 
"Yes,  I'll  try  to  think  she's  here.  Please  to  write  a 
long  letter  to  her,  and  tell  her  all  about  it,  and  send 
her  a  lock  of  my  hair  and  comfort  her.  But  I  would 
like  you  to  tell  her  how  much  I  suffered — yes,  I  would 
like  you  to  do  that,  for  she  would  feel  so  for  me.  Hold 
my  hand  while  I  die."  There  may  have  been  no  classic 
elegance  in  her  features,  but  all  the  hospitals  of  Har- 
rison's Landing  and  Fortress  Monroe  would  have 
agreed  that  she  was  beautiful,  and  if  any  rough  man 
in  all  that  ward  had  insulted  her,  some  wounded  sol- 
dier would  have  leaped  from  his  couch  on  his  best  foot 
and  struck  him  dead  with  a  crutch. 

Again,  I  advise  you  not  to  depend  for  happiness 
upon  the  flatteries  of  men.  It  is  a  poor  compliment  to 
your  sex  that  so  many  men  feel  obliged,  in  your  pres- 
ence, to  offer  unmeaning  compliments.  Many  capable 
of  elegant  and  elaborate  conversation  elsewhere,  some- 
times feel  called  upon  at  the  door  of  the  drawing-room 
to  drop  their  common  sense  and  to  dole  out  sickening 
flatteries.  They  say  things  about  your  dress  and  about 
your  appearance,  that  you  know  and  they  know  are 
false.  They  say  you  are  an  angel.  You  know  you  are 
not.  Determined  to  tell  the  truth  in  office  and  store 
and  shop,  they  consider  it  honorable  to  lie  to  a  woman. 
The  same  thing  that  they  told  you  on  this  side  of  the 
drawing-room,  three  minutes  ago  they  said  to  some 
one  on  the  other  side  of  the  drawing-room.  Oh,  let 
no  one  trample  on  your  self-respect.  The  meanest 
thing  on  which  a  woman  can  build  her  happiness  is 
the  flatteries  of  men. 
VOL.  XI.  103 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Again,  I  charge  you  not  to  depend  for  happiness 
upon  the  discipleship  of  worldUness.  I  have  seen  men 
as  vain  of  their  old-fashioned  and  their  eccentric  hat 
as  the  brainless  fop  is  proud  of  his  dangling  fooleries. 
Fashion  sometimes  makes  a  reasonable  demand  of  us, 
and  then  we  ought  to  yield  to  it.  The  daisies  of  the 
field  have  their  fashion  of  color  and  leaf;  the  honey- 
suckles have  their  fashion  of  ear-drop ;  and  the  snow- 
flakes  flung  out  of  the  winter  heavens  have  their  fash- 
ion of  exquisiteness.  After  the  summer  shower  the 
sky  weds  the  earth  with  ring  of  rainbow.  And  I  do 
not  think  we  have  a  right  to  despise  the  elegances  and 
fashions  of  this  world,  especially  if  they  make  reason- 
able demands  upon  us ;  but  the  discipleship  and  wor- 
ship of  fashion  is  death  to  the  body  and  death  to  the 
soul. 

I  am  glad  the  world  is  improving.  Look  at  the 
fashion-plates  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies, and  you  will  find  that  the  world  is  not  so  ex- 
travagant now  as  it  was  then;  and  all  the  marvelous 
things  that  the  granddaughter  will  do  will  never  equal 
that  done  by  the  grandmother.  Go  still  farther  back, 
to  the  Bible  times,  and  you  find  that  in  those  times 
fashion  wielded  a  more  terrible  scepter.  You  have 
only  to  turn  to  the  third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  a  portion 
of  the  Scriptures  from  which  I  once  preached  to  you, 
to  read  the  Jewish  fashion-plate :  "Because  the  daugh- 
ters of  Zion  are  haughty,  and  walk  with  stretch ed-forth 
necks  and  wanton  eyes,  walking  and  mincing  as  they 
go,  and  making  a  tinkling  with  their  feet :  In  that  day 
the  Lord  will  take  away  the  bravery  of  their  tinkling 
ornaments  about  their  feet,  and  their  cauls,  and  their 
round  tires  like  the  moon,  the  chains,  and  the  brace- 
lets, and  the  mufflers,  and  bonnets,  and  the  head-bands, 
and  the  tablets,  and  the  earrings,  the  rings,  and  the 
nose-jewels,  the  changeable  suits  of  apparel,  and  the 

104  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

mantles,  and  the  wimples,  and  the  crisping  pins,  the 
glasses,  and  the  fine  linen,  and  the  hoods  and  the 
veils."  Only  think  of  a  woman  having  all  that  on !  I 
am  glad  that  the  world  is  getting  better  and  that  fash- 
ion, which  has  dominated  in  the  world  so  ruinously  in 
other  days,  has  for  a  little  time,  for  a  little  degree  at 
any  rate,  relaxed  its  energies. 

All  the  splendors  and  the  extravaganzas  of  this 
world  dyed  into  your  robe,  and  flung  over  your  shoul- 
der, cannot  wrap  peace  around  your  heart  for  a  single 
moment.  The  gayest  wardrobe  will  utter  no  voice  of 
condolence  in  the  day  of  trouble  and  darkness.  The 
woman  is  grandly  dressed,  and  only  she,  who  is 
wrapped  in  the  robe  of  a  Saviour's  righteousness.  The 
home  may  be  very  humble,  the  hat  may  be  very  plain, 
the  frock  may  be  very  coarse,  but  the  halo  of  heaven 
settles  in  the  room  when  she  wears  it,  and  the  faintest 
touch  of  the  resurrection  angel  will  change  that  gar- 
ment into  raiment  of  exceeding  white,  so  that  no  fuller 
on  earth  could  whiten  it. 

I  come  to  you,  young  woman,  to-day,  to  say  that 
this  world  cannot  make  you  happy.  I  know  it  is  a 
bright  world,  with  glorious  sunshine  and  golden  riv- 
ers and  fire-worked  sunset  and  bird  orchestra,  and  the 
darkest  cave  has  its  crystals  and  the  wrathiest  wave 
has  its  foam  wreath  and  the  coldest  midnight  its  flam- 
ing aurora ;  but  God  will  put  out  all  these  lights  with 
the  blast  of  his  own  nostrils,  and  the  glories  of  this 
world  will  perish  in  the  final  conflagration.  You  will 
never  be  happy  until  you  get  your  sins  forgiven  and 
allow  Christ  Jesus  to  take  full  possession  of  your  soul. 
He  will  be  your  friend  in  every  perplexity.  He  will  be 
your  comfort  in  every  trial.  He  will  be  your  defender 
in  every  strait.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  bring,  like  Mary, 
the  spices  to  the  sepulcher  of  a  dead  Christ;  but  to 
bring  your  all  to  the  foot  of  a  living  Jesus.    His  word 

VOL.  XI.  105 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

is  peace.  His  look  is  love.  His  hand  is  help.  His 
touch  is  life.  His  smile  is  heaven.  Oh,  come,  then,  in 
flocks  and  groups.  Come  like  the  south  wind  over 
banks  of  myrrh.  Come  like  the  morning  light,  trip- 
ping over  the  mountains.  Wreathe  all  your  aflfections 
on  Christ's  brow,  set  all  your  gems  in  Christ's  coronet ; 
let  the  Sabbath  air  rustle  with  the  wings  of  rejoicing 
angels,  and  the  towers  of  God  ring  out  the  news  of 
souls  saved. 

This  world  its  fancied  pearl  may  carve, 

'Tis  not  the  pearl  for  me; 
'Twill  dim  its  luster  in  the  grave, 

'Twill  perish  in  the  sea. 
But  there's  a  pearl  of  price  untold, 
Which  never   can   be   bought   with   gold; 

Oh,  that's  the  pearl  for  me! 

The  snow  was  very  deep,  and  it  was  still  falling 
rapidly,  when,  in  the  first  year  of  my  Christian  min- 
istry, I  hastened  to  see  a  young  woman  die.  It  was 
a  very  humble  home.  She  was  an  orphan ;  her  father 
had  been  shipwrecked  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland. 
She  had  earned  her  own  living.  As  I  entered  the  room 
I  saw  nothing  attractive.  No  pictures;  no  tapestry; 
not  even  a  cushioned  chair.  The  snow  on  the  window 
casement  was  not  whiter  than  the  cheek  of  that  dying 
girl.  It  was  a  face  never  to  be  forgotten.  Sweetness 
and  majesty  of  soul  and  faith  in  God  had  given  her  a 
matchless  beauty,  and  the  sculptor  who  could  have 
caught  the  outlines  of  those  features  and  frozen  them 
into  stone  would  have  made  himself  immortal.  With 
her  large,  brown  eyes  she  looked  calmly  into  the  great 
eternity.  I  sat  down  by  her  bedside  and  said :  "Now 
tell  me  all  your  troubles  and  sorrows  and  struggles 
and  doubts."  She  replied:  "I  have  no  doubts  or 
struggles.    It  is  all  plain  to  me.    Jesus  has  smoothed 

I06  VOL.  XI. 


Woman's  Happiness 

the  way  for  my  feet.  I  wish  when  you  go  to  your  pul- 
pit next  Sunday,  you  would  tell  the  people  that  religion 
will  make  them  happy.  'O  Death,  where  is  thy 
sting?'  Mr.  Talmage,  I  wonder  if  this  is  not  the  bliss 
of  dying?"  I  said:  "Yes,  I  think  it  must  be."  I 
lingered  around  the  couch.  The  sun  was  setting,  and 
her  sister  lighted  a  candle.  She  lighted  the  candle  for 
me.  The  dying  girl,  the  dawn  of  heaven  in  her  face, 
needed  no  candle.  I  rose  to  go,  and  she  said :  "I  thank 
you  for  coming.  Good  night!  When  we  meet  again 
it  will  be  in  heaven — in  heaven.  Good  night!  Good 
night!"  For  her  it  was  good  night  to  tears,  good 
night  to  poverty,  good  night  to  death;  but  when  the 
sun  rose  again  it  was  good  morning.  The  light  of  an- 
other day  had  burst  in  upon  her  soul.  Good  morning ! 
The  angels  were  singing  her  welcome  home,  and  the 
hand  of  Christ  was  putting  upon  her  brow  a  garland. 
Good  morning!  Her  sun  rising.  Her  palm  waving. 
Her  spirit  exulting  before  the  throne  of  God.  Good 
morning!  Good  morning!  The  white  lily  of  poor 
Margaret's  cheek  had  blushed  into  the  rose  of  health 
immortal,  and  the  snows  through  which  we  carried  her 
to  the  country  graveyard  were  symbols  of  that  robe 
which  she  wears,  so  white  that  no  fuller  on  earth  could 
whiten  it.  My  sister,  my  daughter,  may  your  last  end 
be  like  hers ! 


VOL.  XI.  107 


A  WEDDING  PRESENT 

Joshua,  15:  19:  "Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land;  give 
me  also  springs  of  water.  And  he  gave  her  the  upper 
springs  and  the  nether  springs." 


A  WEDDING  PRESENT 

Joshua,  15:  19:  "Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land;  give 
me  also  springs  of  water.  And  he  gave  her  the  upper 
springs  and  the  nether  springs." 

The  city  of  Debir  was  the  Boston  of  antiquity  —  a 
great  place  for  brain  and  books.  Caleb  wanted  it,  and 
he  offered  his  daughter  Achsah  as  a  prize  to  any  one 
who  would  capture  that  city.  It  was  a  strange  thing 
for  Caleb  to  do;  and  yet  the  man  that  could  take  the 
city  would  have,  at  any  rate,  two  elements  of  man- 
hood—  bravery  and  patriotism.  Besides,  I  do  not 
th"  k  that  Caleb  was  as  foolish  in  offering  his  daugh- 
ter to  the  conqueror  of  Debir,  as  thousands  in  this 
day  who  seek  alliances  for  their  children  with  those 
who  have  large  means,  without  any  reference  to  moral 
or  mental  acquirements.  Of  two  evils,  I  would 
rather  measure  manly  worth  by  the  length  of  the 
sword  than  by  the  length  of  the  pocket-book.  In  one 
case  there  is  sure  to  be  one  good  element  of  character; 
in  the  other  there  may  be  none  at  all.  With  Caleb's 
daughter  as  a  prize  to  fight  for.  General  Othniel  rode 
into  the  battle.  The  gates  of  Debir  were  thundered 
into  the  dust,  and  the  city  of  books  lay  at  the  feet  of 
the  conquerors.  The  work  done,  Othniel  comes  back 
to  claim  his  bride.  Having  conquered  the  city,  it  is 
no  great  job  for  him  to  conquer  the  girl's  heart;  for, 
however  faint-hearted  a  woman  herself  may  be,  she  al- 
ways loves  courage  in  a  man.  I  never  saw  an  excep- 
tion to  that.  The  wedding  festivity  having  gone  by, 
Othniel  and  Achsah  are  about  to  go  to  their  new  home. 
However  loudly  the  cymbals  may  clash  and  the  laugh- 

VOL.  XI.  Ill 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ter  ring,  parents  are  always  sad  when  a  fondly-cher- 
ished daughter  goes  off  to  stay;  and  Achsah,  the 
daughter  of  Caleb,  knows  that  now  is  the  time  to  get 
almost  anything  she  wants  of  her  father.  It  seems 
that  Caleb,  the  good  old  man,  had  given  as  a  wedding 
present  to  his  daughter  a  piece  of  land  that  was  moun- 
tainous, and  sloping  southward  toward  the  deserts  of 
Arabia,  swept  with  some  very  hot  winds.  It  was 
called  "  a  south  land."  But  Achsah  wants  an  addi- 
tion of  property;  she  wants  a  piece  of  land  that  is 
well  watered  and  fertile.  Now  it  is  no  wonder  that 
Caleb,  standing  amidst  the  bridal  party,  his  eyes  so 
full  of  tears  because  she  was  going  away  that  he  could 
hardly  see  her  at  all,  gives  her  more  than  she  asks. 
She  said  to  him,  "  Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land; 
give  me  also  springs  of  water.  And  he  gave  her  the 
upper  springs,  and  the  nether  springs." 

The  fact  is,  that  as  Caleb,  the  father,  gave  Achsah, 
the  daughter,  a  south  land,  so  God  gives  to  us  his 
world.  I  am  very  thankful  he  has  given  it  to  us.  But 
I  am  like  Achsah  in  the  fact  that  I  am  not  satisfied 
with  the  portion.  Trees  and  flowers  and  grass  and 
blue  skies  are  very  well  in  their  places;  but  he  who 
has  nothing  but  this  world  for  a  portion  has  no  portion 
at  all.  It  is  a  mountainous  land,  sloping  off  toward 
the  desert  of  sorrow,  swept  by  fiery  siroccos;  it  is  "a. 
south  land,"  a  poor  portion  for  any  man  that  tries  to 
put  his  trust  in  it.  What  has  been  your  experience? 
What  has  been  the  experience  of  every  man,  of  every 
woman  that  has  tried  this  world  for  a  portion  ?  Queen 
Elizabeth,  amidst  the  surroundings  of  pomp,  is  un- 
happy because  the  painter  sketches  too  minutely  the 
wrinkles  on  her  face,  and  she  indignantly  cries  out, 
"  You  must  strike  off  my  likeness  without  any  shad- 
ows ! "  Hogarth,  at  the  very  height  of  his  artistic 
triumph,  is  stung  almost  to  death  with  chagrin  be- 

112  VOL.  XI. 


A  Wedding  Present 

cause  the  painting  he  had  dedicated  to  the  king  does 
not  seem  to  be  acceptable;  for  George  II  cries  out, 
"  Who  is  this  Hogarth?  Take  his  trumpery  out  of 
my  presence."  Brinsley  Sheridan  thrilled  the  earth 
with  his  eloquence,  but  had  for  his  last  words,  "  I  am 
absolutely  undone."  Walter  Scott,  fumbling  around 
the  inkstand,  trying  to  write,  says  to  his  daughter, 
"  Oh,  take  me  back  to  my  room ;  there  is  no  rest  for 
Sir  Walter  but  in  the  grave !  "  Stephen  Girard,  the 
wealthiest  man  in  his  day,  or,  at  any  rate,  only  second 
in  wealth,  says,  "  I  live  the  life  of  a  galley-slave;  when 
I  arise  in  the  morning  my  one  effort  is  to  work  so 
hard  that  I  can  sleep  when  it  gets  to  be  night." 
Charles  Lamb,  applauded  of  all  the  world,  in  the  very 
midst  of  his  literary  triumph,  says,  "  Do  you  remem- 
ber, Bridget,  when  we  used  to  laugh  from  the  shilling 
gallery  at  the  play?  There  are  now  no  good  plays  to 
laugh  at  from  the  boxes."  But  why  go  so  far  as  that? 
I  need  to  go  no  farther  than  your  street  to  find  an  il- 
lustration of  what  I  am  saying. 

Pick  me  out  ten  successful  worldlings  —  and  you 
know  what  I  mean  by  thoroughly  successful  world- 
lings—  pick  me  out  ten  successful  worldlings,  and 
you  cannot  find  more  than  one  that  looks  happy. 
Care  drags  him  to  business;  care  drags  him  back. 
Take  your  stand  at  two  o'clock  at  the  corner  of  the 
streets  and  see  the  anxious  physiognomies.  Your 
high  officials,  your  bankers,  your  insurance  men,  your 
importers,  your  wholesalers,  and  your  retailers,  as  a 
class  —  as  a  class,  are  they  happy?  No.  Care  dogs 
their  steps;  and,  making  no  appeal  to  God  for  help  or 
comfort,  many  of  them  are  tossed  ever)rwhither.  How 
has  it  been  with  you,  my  hearer?  Are  you  more 
contented  in  the  house  of  fourteen  rooms  than  you 
were  in  the  two  rooms  you  had  in  a  house  when  you 
started?    Have  you  not  had  more  care  and  worriment 

VOL.  XI.  113 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

since  you  won  that  fifty  thousand  dollars  than  you  did 
before?  Some  of  the  poorest  men  I  have  ever  known 
have  been  those  of  great  fortune.  A  man  of  small 
means  may  be  put  in  great  business  straits,  but  the 
ghastliest  of  all  embarrassments  is  that  of  the  man 
who  has  large  estates.  The  men  who  commit  suicide 
because  of  monetary  losses  are  those  who  cannot  bear 
the  burden  any  more,  because  they  have  only  fifty 
thousand  dollars  left. 

On  Bowling  Green,  New  York,  there  is  a  house 
where  Talleyrand  used  to  go.  He  was  a  favored  man. 
All  the  world  knew  him,  and  he  had  wealth  almost 
unlimited;  yet  at  the  close  of  his  life  he  says,  "  Behold, 
eighty-three  years  have  passed  without  any  practical 
result,  save  fatigue  of  body  and  fatigue  of  mind,  great 
discouragement  for  the  future,  and  great  disgust  for 
the  past."  Oh,  my  friends,  this  is  a  "  south  land,"  and 
it  slopes  off  toward  deserts  of  sorrows ;  and  the  prayer 
which  Achsah  made  to  her  father  Caleb  we  make  this 
day  to  our  Father  God:  "Thou  hast  given  me  a 
south  land;  give  me  also  springs  of  water.  And  he 
gave  her  the  upper  springs,  and  the  nether  springs." 

Blessed  be  God!  we  have  more  advantages  given 
us  than  we  can  really  appreciate.  We  have  spiritual 
blessings  oflfered  us  in  this  world  which  I  shall  call 
the  nether  springs,  and  glories  in  the  world  to  come 
which  I  shall  call  the  upper  springs. 

Where  shall  I  find  words  enough  threaded  with 
light  to  set  forth  the  pleasure  of  religion?  David,  un- 
able to  describe  it  in  words,  played  it  on  a  harp.  Mrs. 
Hemans,  not  finding  enough  power  in  prose,  sings  that 
praise  in  a  canto.  Christopher  Wren,  unable  to  de- 
scribe it  in  language,  sprung  it  into  the  arches  of  St. 
Paul's.  John  Bunyan,  unable  to  present  it  in  ordinary 
phraseology,  takes  all  the  fascination  of  allegory. 
Handel,   with   ordinary   music   unable   to   reach   the 

114  VOL.  XI. 


A  Wedding  Present 

height  of  the  theme,  rouses  it  up  in  an  oratorio.  Oh, 
there  is  no  life  on  earth  so  happy  as  a  really  Christian 
life!  I  do  not  mean  a  sham  Christian  life,  but  a  real 
Christian  life.  Where  there  is  a  thorn,  there  is  a 
whole  garland  of  roses.  Where  there  is  one  groan, 
there  are  three  doxologies.  Where  there  is  one  day 
of  cloud,  there  is  a  whole  season  of  sunshine.  Take 
the  humblest  Christian  man  that  you  know  —  angels 
of  God  canopy  him  with  their  white  wings;  the  light- 
nings of  heaven  are  his  armed  allies;  the  Lord  is  his 
Shepherd,  picking  out  for  him  green  pastures  by  still 
waters;  if  he  walks  forth,  heaven  is  his  body-guard;  if 
he  lie  down  to  sleep,  ladders  of  light,  angel-blossom- 
ing, are  let  into  his  dreams;  if  he  be  thirsty,  the  po- 
tentates of  heaven  are  his  cup-bearers;  if  he  sit  down 
to  food,  his  plain  table  blooms  into  the  King's  banquet. 
Men  say,  "  Look  at  that  odd  fellow  with  the  worn-out 
coat;  "  the  angels  of  God  cry,  "  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye 
everlasting  gates,  and  let  him  come  in!  "  Fastidious 
people  cry,  "  Get  oflf  my  front  steps!  "  the  door-keepers 
of  heaven  cry,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  in- 
herit the  kingdom!  "  When  he  comes  to  die,  though 
he  may  be  carried  out  in  a  pine  box  to  the  potter's 
field,  to  that  potter's  field  the  chariots  of  Christ  will 
come  down,  and  the  cavalcade  will  crowd  all  the  boule- 
vards of  heaven. 

I  bless  Christ  for  the  present  satisfaction  of  re- 
ligion. It  makes  a  man  all  right  with  reference  to  the 
past;  it  makes  a  man  all  right  with  reference  to  the 
future.  Oh,  these  nether  springs  of  comfort!  They 
are  perennial.  The  foundation  of  God  standeth  sure 
having  this  seal,  "The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his." 
"  The  mountains  shall  depart  and  the  hills  be  re- 
moved, but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart  from  thee, 
neither  shall  the  covenant  of  my  peace  be  removed, 
saith  the  Lord,  who  hath  mercy  upon  thee."     Oh, 

VOL.  XI.  IIS 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

cluster  of  diamonds  set  in  burnished  gold!  Oh, 
nether  springs  of  comfort  bursting  through  all  the  val- 
leys of  trial  and  tribulation!  When  you  see,  you  of 
the  world,  what  satisfaction  there  is  on  earth  in  re- 
ligion, do  you  not  thirst  after  it  as  the  daughter  of 
Caleb  thirsted  after  the  water-springs?  It  is  no  stag- 
nant pond,  scummed  over  with  malaria,  but  springs 
of  water  leaping  from  the  Rock  of  Ages !  Take  up  one 
cup  of  that  spring-water,  and  across  the  top  of  the 
chalice  will  float  the  deHcate  shadows  of  the  heavenly 
wall,  the  yellow  of  jasper,  the  green  of  emerald,  the 
blue  of  sardonyx,  the  fire  of  jacinth. 

I  wish  I  could  make  you  understand  the  joy  re- 
ligion is  to  some  of  us.  It  makes  a  man  happy  while 
he  lives,  and  glad  when  he  dies.  With  two  feet  upon 
a  chair  and  bursting  with  dropsies,  I  heard  an  old  man 
in  the  poorhouse  cry  out,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  oh,  my 
soul!"  I  looked  around  and  said,  "What  has  this 
man  got  to  thank  God  for?  "  It  makes  the  lame  man 
leap  as  a  hart,  and  the  dumb  sing.  They  say  that 
the  old  Puritan  religion  is  a  juiceless  and  joyless  re- 
ligion; but  I  remember  reading  of  Dr.  Goodwin,  the 
celebrated  Puritan,  who  in  his  last  moment  said,  "  Is 
this  dying?  Why,  my  bow  abides  in  strength!  I  am 
swallowed  up  in  God!  "  "  Her  ways  are  ways  of 
pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace."  Oh,  you 
who  have  been  trying  to  satisfy  yourselves  with  the 
"  south  land  "  of  this  world,  do  you  not  feel  that  you 
would,  this  morning,  Hke  to  have  access  to  the  nether 
springs  of  spiritual  comfort?  Would  you  not  like  to 
have  Jesus  Christ  bend  over  your  cradle  and  bless  your 
table  and  heal  your  wounds  and  strew  flowers  of  con- 
solation all  up  and  down  the  graves  of  your  dead? 

'Tis  religion  that  can  give 
Sweetest  pleasure  while  we  live; 
'Tis  religion  can  supply 
Sweetest  comfort  when  we  die. 

Il6  VOL.  XI. 


A  Wedding  Present 

But  I  have  something  better  to  tell  you,  suggested 
by  this  text.  It  seems  that  old  Father  Caleb,  on  the 
wedding  day  of  his  daughter,  wanted  to  make  her  just 
as  happy  as  possible.  Though  Othniel  was  taking 
her  away,  and  his  heart  was  almost  broken  because 
she  was  going,  yet  he  gives  her  a  "  south  land; "  not 
only  that,  but  the  nether  springs;  not  only  that,  but 
the  upper  springs,  O,  God!  my  Father,  I  thank  thee 
that  thou  hast  given  me  a  "  south  land  "  in  this  world; 
and  the  nether  springs  of  spiritual  comfort  in  this  world; 
but,  more  than  all,  I  thank  thee  for  the  upper  springs 
in  heaven. 

It  is  very  fortunate  that  we  cannot  see  heaven  un- 
til we  get  into  it.  O  Christian  man,  if  you  could  see 
what  a  place  it  is,  we  would  never  get  you  back  again 
to  the  office  or  store  or  shop,  and  the  duties  you 
ought  to  perform  would  go  neglected.  I  am  glad  I 
shall  not  see  that  world  until  I  enter  it.  Suppose  we 
were  allowed  to  go  on  an  excursion  into  that  good 
land  with  the  idea  of  returning.  When  we  got  there 
and  heard  the  song  and  looked  at  their  raptured  faces 
and  mingled  in  the  supernal  society,  we  would  cry  out, 
"  Let  us  stay!  We  are  coming  here  anyhow.  Why 
take  the  trouble  of  going  back  again  to  that  old  world? 
We  are  here  now;  let  us  stay."  And  it  would  take 
angelic  violence  to  put  us  out  of  that  world,  if  once 
we  got  there.  But  as  people  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
for  an  entertainment  sometimes  come  around  it  and 
look  through  the  door  ajar,  or  through  the  openings 
in  the  fence,  so  we  come  and  look  through  the  crevices 
into  that  good  land  which  God  has  provided  for  us. 
We  can  just  catch  a  glimpse  of  it.  We  come  near 
enough  to  hear  the  rumbling  of  the  eternal  orchestra, 
though  not  near  enough  to  know  who  blows  the  cor- 
net or  who  fingers  the  harp.  My  soul  spreads  out 
both  wings  and  claps  them  in  triumph  at  the  thought 
VOL.  XI.  117 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

of  those  upper  springs.  One  of  them  pours  from  be- 
neath the  throne;  another  breaks  forth  from  beneath 
the  altar  of  the  temple ;  another  at  the  door  of  "  the 
house  of  many  mansions."  Upper  springs  of  glad- 
ness! upper  springs  of  light!  upper  springs  of  love! 
It  is  no  fancy  of  mine.  "  The  Lamb  which  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  throne  shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains 
of  water."  O,  Saviour  divine,  roll  in  upon  our  souls 
one  of  those  anticipated  raptures!  Pour  around  the 
roots  of  the  parched  tongue  one  drop  of  that  liquid 
life!  Toss  before  our  vision  those  fountains  of  God, 
rainbowed  with  eternal  victory.  Hear  it!  They  are 
never  sick  there,  not  so  much  as  a  headache  or  twinge 
rheumatic  or  thrust  neuralgic.  The  inhabitants  never 
says,  "  I  am  sick."  They  are  never  tired  there. 
Flight  to  farthest  world  is  only  the  play  of  a  holiday. 
They  never  sin  there.  It  is  as  easy  for  them  to  bf; 
holy  as  it  is  for  us  to  sin.  They  never  die  there.  You 
might  go  through  all  the  outskirts  of  the  great  city 
and  find  not  one  place  where  the  ground  was  broken 
for  a  grave.  There  is  health  in  every  cheek.  There 
is  spring  in  every  foot.  There  is  majesty  on  every 
brow.  There  is  joy  in  evSry  heart.  There  is  hosanna 
on  every  lip.  How  they  must  pity  us  as  they  look  over 
and  look  down  and  see  us,  and  say,  "  Poor  things, 
away  down  in  that  world !  "  And  when  some  Chris- 
tian is  hurled  into  a  fatal  accident,  they  cry,  "  Good, 
he  is  coming !  "  And  when  we  stand  around  the 
couch  of  some  loved  one  whose  strength  is  going 
away,  and  we  shake  our  heads  forebodingly,  they  cry, 
"  I  am  glad  he  is  worse ;  he  has  been  down  there  long 
enough.  There,  he  is  dead!  Come  home!  come 
home!"  Oh,  if  we  could  only  get  our  ideas  about 
that  future  world  untwisted,  our  thought  of  transfer 
from  here  to  there  would  be  as  pleasant  to  us  as  it 

Il8  VOL.  XI. 


A  Wedding  Present 

was  to  a  little  child  that  was  dying.  She  said,  "  Papa, 
when  will  I  go  home?  "  And  he  said,  "  To-day,  Flor- 
ence." "To-day?  so  soon?  I  am  so  glad!  "  I  wish 
I  could  stimulate  you  with  these  thoughts,  O  Chris- 
tian man,  to  the  highest  possible  exhilaration.  The 
day  of  your  deliverance  is  coming,  is  coming  rolling 
on  with  the  shining  wheels  of  the  day,  and  the  jet 
wheels  of  the  night.  Every  thump  of  the  heart  is 
only  a  hammer-stroke  striking  off  another  chain  of 
clay.  Better  scour  the  deck  and  coil  the  rope,  for  the 
harbor  is  only  six  miles  away.  Jesus  will  come  down 
in  the  "  Narrows  "  to  meet  you.  "  Now  is  your  sal- 
vation nearer  than  when  you  believed." 

Man  of  the  world!  will  you  not  to-day  make  a 
choice  between  these  two  portions,  between  the  "  south 
land  "  of  this  world,  which  slopes  to  the  desert,  and 
this  glorious  land  which  thy  Father  offers  thee,  run- 
ning with  eternal  water-courses?  Why  let  your 
tongue  be  consumed  of  thirst  when  there  are  the  nether 
springs  and  the  upper  springs :  comfort  here  and  glory 
hereafter?  You  and  I  need  something  better  than  this 
world  can  give  us.  The  fact  is  that  it  cannot  give  us 
anything  after  a  while.  It  is  a  changing  world.  Do 
you  know  that  even  the  mountains  on  the  back  of  a 
thousand  streams  are  leaping  into  the  valley.  The 
Alleghanies  are  dying.  The-  dews  with  crystaUine 
mallet  are  hammering  away  the  rocks.  Frosts  and 
showers  and  lightnings  are  sculpturing  Mount  Wash- 
ington and  the  Catskills.  Niagara  every  year  is  dig- 
ging for  itself  a  quicker  plunge.  The  sea  all  around 
the  earth  on  its  shifting  shores  is  making  mighty 
changes  in  bar  and  bay  and  frith  and  promontory. 
Some  of  the  old  seacoasts  are  under  water  now.  Off 
Nantucket,  eight  feet  below  low-water  mark,  are  found 
now  the  stumps  of  trees,  showing  that  the  waves  are 
VOL.  XI.  119 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

conquering  the  land.  Parts  of  Nova  Scotia  are  sink- 
ing. Ships  to-day  sail  over  what,  only  a  little  while 
ago,  was  solid  ground.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Croix  river  is  an  island  which,  in  the  movements  of  the 
earth,  is  slowly  but  certainly  rotating.  All  the  face 
of  the  earth  changing  —  changing.  In  1831,  an  isl- 
and springs  up  in  the  Mediterranean  sea.  In  1866, 
another  island  comes  up  under  the  observation  of  the 
American  consul  as  he  looks  oflf  from  the  beach.  The 
earth  all  the  time  changing,  the  columns  of  a  temple 
near  Bizoli  show  that  the  water  has  risen  nine  feet 
above  the  place  it  was  when  these  columns  were  put 
down.  Changing!  Our  Colorado  river,  once  vaster 
than  the  Mississippi,  flowing  through  the  great  Ameri- 
can desert,  which  was  then  an  Eden  of  luxuriance,  has 
now  dwindled  to  a  small  stream  creeping  down 
through  a  gorge.  The  earth  itself,  that  was  once 
vapor,  afterward  water  —  nothing  but  water  —  after- 
ward molten  rock,  cooling  off  through  the  ages  until 
plants  might  live,  and  animals  might  live,  and  men 
might  live,  changing  all  the  while,  now  crumbling, 
now  breaking  ofT.  The  sun,  burning  down  gradually 
in  its  socket.  Changing!  Changing!  an  intimation 
of  the  last  great  change  to  come  over  the  world  even 
infused  into  the  mind  of  the  heathen  who  has  never 
seen  the  Bible.  The  Hindoos  believe  that  Bramah, 
the  creator,  once  made  all  things.  He  created  the 
water,  then  moved  over  the  water,  out  of  it  lifted  the 
land,  grew  the  plants  and  animals  and  men  on  it. 
Out  of  his  eye  went  the  sun.  Out  of  his  lips  went  the 
lire.  Out  of  his  ear  went  the  air.  Then  Bramah 
laid  down  to  sleep  four  thousand  three  hundred  and 
twenty  million  years.  After  that,  they  say,  he  will 
wake  up,  and  then  the  world  will  be  destroyed,  and  he 
will  make  it  over  again,  bringing  up  land,  bringing  up 

120  VOL.  XI. 


A  Wedding  Present 

creatures  upon  it;  then  lying  down  again  to  sleep  four 
thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty  million  years,  then 
waking  up  and  destroying  the  world  again  —  creation 
and  demolition  following  each  other,  until  after  three 
hundred  and  twenty  sleeps,  each  one  of  these  slumbers 
four  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty  million  years 
long,  Bramah  will  wake  up  and  die,  and  the  universe 
will  die  with  him  —  an  intimation,  though  very  faint, 
of  the  great  change  to  come  upon  this  physical  earth 
spoken  of  in  the  Bible.  But  while  Bramah  may  sleep, 
our  God  never  slumbers  nor  sleeps;  and  the  heavens 
shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements 
shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  earth  and  all 
things  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up. 

"  Well,"  says  some  one,  "  if  that  is  so;  if  the  world 
is  going  from  one  change  to  another,  then  what  is 
the  use  of  my  toiling  for  its  betterment?  "  That  is  the 
point  on  which  I  want  to  guard  you.  I  do  not  want 
you  to  become  misanthropic.  It  is  a  great  and  glori- 
ous world.  If  Christ  could  afiford  to  spend  thirty- 
three  years  on  it  for  its  redemption,  then  you  can  af- 
ford to  toil  and  pray  for  the  betterment  of  the  nations, 
and  for  the  bringing  on  of  that  glorious  time  when  all 
people  shall  see  the  salvation  of  God.  While,  there- 
fore, I  want  to  guard  you  against  misanthropic  notions 
in  respect  to  this  subject  I  have  presented,  I  want  you 
to  take  this  thought  home  with  you:  This  world  is  a 
poor  foundation  to  build  on.  It  is  a  changing  world, 
and  it  is  a  dying  world.  The  shifting  scenes  and  the 
changing  sands  are  only  emblems  of  all  earthly  expec- 
tation. Life  is  very  much  like  this  day  through  which 
we  have  passed.  To  many  of  us  it  is  storm  and  dark- 
ness, then  sunshine,  storm  and  darkness,  then  after- 
ward a  little  sunshine,  now  again  darkness  and 
storm.      Oh,   build   not   your   hopes   upon   this   un- 

VOL.  XI.  I2Z 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

certain  world!  Build  on  God.  Confide  in  Jesus. 
Plan  for  an  eternal  residence  at  Christ's  right  hand. 
Then,  come  sickness  or  health,  come  joy  or  sorrow, 
come  life  or  death,  all  is  well,  all  is  well. 

In  the  name  of  the  God  of  Caleb,  and  his  daughter, 
Achsah,  I  this  day  oflfer  you  the  "  upper  springs  "  of 
unfading  and  everlasting  rapture. 


182  VOL.  XI. 


HARBOR  OF  HOME 

Mark,  S:  19:    "Go  home  to  thy  friends,  and  tell  them  how 
great  things  the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee." 


HARBOR  OF  HOME 

Mark,  5:  19:    "Go  home  to  thy  friends,  and  tell  them  how 
great  things  the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee." 

There  are  a  great  many  people  longing  for  some 
grand  sphere  in  which  to  serve  God.  They  admire 
Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  only  wish  that 
they  had  some  such  great  opportunity  in  which  to 
display  their  Christian  prowess.  They  admire  Paul 
making  Felix  tremble,  and  they  only  wish  that  they 
had  some  such  grand  occasion  in  which  to  preach 
righteousness,  temperance  and  judgment  to  come.  All 
they  want  is  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  their  Christian 
heroism.  Now  the  apostle  comes  to  us  and  he  prac- 
tically says :  "  I  will  show  you  a  place  where  you  can 
exhibit  all  that  is  grand  and  beautiful  and  glorious 
in  Christian  character,  and  that  is  the  domestic 
circle." 

If  one  is  not  faithful  in  an  insignificant  sphere  he 
will  not  be  faithful  in  a  resounding  sphere.  If  Peter 
will  not  help  the  cripple  at  the  gate  of  the  temple,  he 
will  never  be  able  to  preach  three  thousand  souls  into 
the  kingdom  at  the  Pentecost.  If  Paul  will  not  take 
pains  to  instruct  the  sheriff  of  the  Philippian  dun- 
geon in  the  way  of  salvation,  he  will  never  make  Felix 
tremble.  He  who  is  not  faithful  in  skirmish  would 
not  be  faithful  in  an  Armageddon.  The  fact  is,  we  are 
all  placed  in  just  the  position  in  which  we  can  most 
grandly  serve  God,  and  we  ought  not  to  be  chiefly 
thoughtful  about  some  sphere  of  usefulness  which 
we  may  after  a  while  gain,  but  the  all-absorbing  ques- 
tion with  you  and  with  me  ought  to  be :  "  Lord, 
what  wilt  thou  have  me  (now  and  here)  to  do  ?  " 
VOL.  XI.  125 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

There  is  one  word  in  my  text  around  which  the 
most  of  our  thoughts  will  revolve.  That  word  is 
"  home."  Ask  ten  different  men  the  meaning  of  that 
word  and  they  will  give  you  ten  different  definitions. 
To  one  it  means  love  at  the  hearth,  it  means  plenty 
at  the  table,  industry  at  the  workstand,  intelligence  at 
the  books,  devotion  at  the  altar.  To  him  it  means  a 
greeting  at  the  door  and  a  smile  at  the  chair.  Peace 
hovering  like  wings.  Joy  clapping  its  hands  with 
laughter.  Life  a  tranquil  lake.  Pillowed  on  the  rip- 
ples sleep  the  shadows.  Ask  another  man  what  home 
is,  and  he  will  tell  you  it  is  want,  looking  out  of  a 
cheerless  fire-grate  and  kneading  hunger  in  an  empty 
bread-tray.  The  damp  air  shivering  with  curses.  No 
Bible  on  the  shelf.  Children,  robbers  and  murderers 
in  embryo.  Vile  songs  their  lullaby.  Every  face  a 
picture  of  ruin.  Want  in  the  background  and  sin 
staring  from  the  front.  No  Sabbath  wave  rolling  over 
that  doorsill.  Vestibule  of  the  pit.  Shadow  of  in- 
fernal walls.  Furnace  for  forging  everlasting  chains. 
Faggots  for  an  unending  funeral  pile.  Awful  word! 
It  is  spelled  with  curses,  it  weeps  with  ruin,  it  chokes 
with  woe,  it  sweats  with  the  death-agony  of  despair. 
The  word  "  home  "  in  the  one  case  means  everything 
bright ;  in  the  other  case,  everything  terrific. 

I  shall  speak  to  you  of  home  as  a  test  of  character, 
home  as  a  refuge,  home  as  a  political  safeguard,  home 
as  a  school,  and  home  as  a  type  of  heaven. 

And  in  the  first  place  I  remark  that  home  is  a 
powerful  test  of  character.  The  disposition  in  public 
may  be  in  gay  costume,  while  in  private  it  is  in  dis- 
habille. As  play-actors  may  appear  in  one  garb  on 
the  stage  and  may  appear  in  another  garb  behind  the 
scenes,  so  private  character  may  be  very  different 
from  public  character.  Private  character  is  often 
public  character  turned  wrong  side  out.    A  man  may 

126  VOL.  XI. 


Harbor  of  Home 

receive  you  into  his  parlor  as  though  he  were  a  dis- 
tillation of  smiles,  and  yet  his  heart  may  be  a  swamp 
of  nettles.  There  are  business  men  who  all  day  long 
are  mild  and  courteous  and  genial  and  good-natured 
in  commercial  Hfe,  keeping  back  their  irritability  and 
their  petulance  and  their  discontent;  but  at  nightfall 
the  dam  breaks,  and  scolding  pours  forth  in  floods 
and  freshets. 

The  reason  men  do  not  display  their  bad  temper 
in  public  is  because  they  do  not  want  to  be  knocked 
down.  There  are  men  who  hide  their  petulance  and 
their  irritability  just  for  the  same  reason  that  they 
do  not  let  their  notes  go  to  protest ;  it  does  not  pay. 
Or  for  the  same  reason  that  they  do  not  want  a  man 
in  their  stock  company  to  sell  his  stock  at  less  than 
the  right  price,  lest  it  depreciate  the  value.  As  at 
sunset  the  wind  rises,  so  after  a  sunshiny  day  there 
may  be  a  tempestuous  night.  There  are  people  who 
in  public  act  the  philanthropist,  who  at  home  act  the 
^Nero  with  respect  to  their  slippers  and  their  gown. 

Audubon,  the  great  ornithologist,  with  gun  and 
pencil,  went  through  the  forests  of  America  to  bring 
down  and  so  sketch  the  beautiful  birds,  and  after 
years  of  toil  and  exposure  completed  his  manuscript 
and  put  it  in  a  trunk  in  Philadelphia  for  a  few  days 
of  recreation  and  rest,  and  came  back  and  found  that 
the  rats  had  utterly  destroyed  the  manuscript;  but 
without  any  discomposure  and  without  any  fret  or  bad 
temper,  he  again  picked  up  his  gun  and  pencil  and 
visited  again  all  the  great  forests  of  America  and 
reproduced  his  immortal  work.  And  yet  there  are 
people  with  a  ten-thousandth  part  of  that  loss  who 
are  utterly  irreconcilable,  who,  at  the  loss  of  a  pencil 
or  an  article  of  raiment,  will  blow  as  long  and  sharp 
as  a  northeast  storm.  Now,  that  man  who  is  affable 
in  public  and  who  is  irritable  in  private  is  making  a 
VOL.  XI.  127 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

fraudulent  over-issue  of  stock,  and  he  is  as  bad  as  a 
bank  that  might  have  four  or  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  of  bills  in  circulation,  with  no  specie  in  the 
vault.  Let  us  learn  "  to  show  piety  at  home."  If  we 
have  it  not  there,  we  have  it  not  anywhere.  If  we 
have  not  genuine  grace  in  the  family  circle,  all  our 
outward  and  public  affability  merely  springs  from 
a  fear  of  the  world  or  from  the  slimy,  putrid  pool  of 
our  own  selfishness.  I  tell  you  the  home  is  a  mighty 
test  of  character.  What  you  are  at  home  you  are 
everywhere,  whether  you  demonstrate  it  or  not. 

Again,  I  remark  that  home  is  a  refuge.  Life  is  the 
United  States  army  on  the  national  road  to  the  front, 
a  long  march  with  ever  and  anon  a  skirmish  and  a 
battle.  At  eventide  we  pitch  our  tent  and  stack  our 
arms ;  we  hang  up  the  war  cap  and  lay  our  head  on 
the  knapsack ;  we  sleep  until  the  morning  bugle  calls 
us  to  marching  and  action.  How  pleasant  it  is  to  re- 
hearse the  victories  and  the  surprises  and  the  attacks 
of  the  day  seated  by  the  still  camp-fire  of  the  home 
circle !  Yea,  life  is  a  stormy  sea.  With  shivered 
masts  and  torn  sails  and  hulk  aleak,  we  put  into  the 
harbor  of  home.  Blessed  harbor !  there  we  go  for  re- 
pairs in  the  dry  dock  of  quiet  hfe.  The  candle  in  the 
window  is  to  the  toiling  man  the  lighthouse  guiding 
him  into  port.  Children  go  forth  to  meet  their 
fathers  as  pilots  at  the  Narrows  take  the  hand  of 
ships.  The  door-sill  of  the  home  is  the  wharf  where 
heavy  Hfe  is  unladen.  There  is  the  place  where  we 
may  talk  of  what  we  have  done  without  being  charged 
with  self-adulation.  There  is  the  place  where  we  may 
lounge  without  being  thought  undignified.  There  is 
the  place  where  we  may  express  affection  without  be- 
ing thought  silly.  There  is  the  place  where  we  may 
forget  our  annoyances  and  exasperations  and  trou- 
bles.    Forlorn  earth-pilgrim!  no  home?     Then  die. 

128  VOL.  XI. 


Harbor  of  Home 

That  is  better.  The  grave  is  brighter  and  grander  and 
more  glorious  than  this  world,  with  no  tent  from 
marchings,  with  no  harbor  from  the  storm,  with  no 
place  to  rest  from  this  scene  of  greed  and  gouge  and 
loss  and  gain.  God  pity  the  man  or  woman  who  has 
no  home ! 

Further,  I  remark,  that  home  is  a  political  safe- 
guard. The  safety  of  the  State  must  be  built  on  the 
safety  of  the  home.  The  Christian  hearthstone  is  the 
only  corner-stone  for  a  republic.  The  virtues  cul- 
tured in  the  family  circle  are  an  absolute  necessity 
for  the  State.  If  there  be  not  enough  moral  principle 
to  make  the  family  adhere,  there  will  not  be  enough 
political  principle  to  make  the  State  adhere.  "  No 
home  "  means  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  means  the 
nomads  of  Asia,  means  the  Numidians  of  Africa, 
changing  from  place  to  place  according  as  the  pas- 
ture happens  to  change.  Confounded  be  all  those 
Babels  of  iniquity  which  would  overtower  and  destroy 
the  home !  The  same  storm  that  upsets  the  ship  in 
which  the  family  sails  will  sink  the  frigate  of  the 
Constitution.  Jails  and  penitentiaries  and  armies  and 
navies  are  not  our  best  defense.  The  door  of  the 
home  is  the  best  fortress.  Household  utensils  are  the 
best  artillery,  and  the  chimneys  of  our  dweUing- 
houses  are  the  grandest  monuments  of  safety  and 
triumph.     No  home !  no  republic. 

Further,  I  remark,  that  home  is  a  school.  Old 
ground  must  be  turned  up  with  subsoil  plow,  and  it 
must  be  harrowed  and  reharrowed,  and  then  the  crop 
will  not  be  as  large  as  that  of  the  new  ground  with 
less  culture.  Now,  youth  and  childhood  are  new 
ground,  and  all  the  influences  thrown  over  their  heart 
and  life  will  come  up  in  after-life  luxuriantly.  Every 
time  you  have  given  a  smile  of  approbation  —  all  the 
good  cheer  of  your  life  will  come  up  again  in  the 
VOL.  XI.  129 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

geniality  of  your  children.  And  every  ebullition  of 
anger  and  every  uncontrollable  display  of  wrath  will 
be  fuel  to  their  disposition  twenty  or  thirty  or  forty 
years  from  now  —  fuel  for  a  bad  fire  a  quarter  of  a 
century  from  this.  Make  your  home  the  brightest 
place  on  earth,  if  you  would  charm  your  children  to 
the  high  path  of  virtue  and  rectitude  and  religion! 
Do  not  always  turn  the  bUnds  the  wrong  way.  Let 
the  light  which  puts  gold  on  the  gentian  and  spots 
the  pansy  pour  into  your  dwellings.  Do  not  expect 
the  little  feet  to  keep  step  to  a  Dead  March.  Get  you 
no  hint  of  cheerfulness  from  grasshopper's  leap  and 
lamb's  frisk  and  quail's  whistle,  and  garrulous  stream- 
let, which,  from  the  rock  at  the  mountain-top  clear 
down  to  the  meadow  ferns  under  the  shadow  of  the 
steep,  comes  looking  for  the  steepest  place  to  leap  off 
at,  and  talking  just  to  hear  itself  talk?  If  all  the  skies 
hurtled  with  tempest,  and  everlasting  storm  wandered 
over  the  sea,  and  every  mountain  stream  went  raving 
mad,  frothing  at  the  mouth  with  mad  foam,  and  there 
were  nothing  but  simoons  blowing  among  the  hills, 
and  there  were  neither  lark's  carol  nor  humming- 
bird's trill  nor  waterfall's  dash,  but  only  bear's  bark 
and  panther's  scream  and  wolf's  howl,  then  you  might 
well  gather  into  your  homes  only  the  shadows.  But 
when  God  has  strewn  the  earth  and  the  heavens  with 
beauty  and  with  gladness,  let  us  take  into  our  home 
circles  all  innocent  hilarity,  all  brightness,  and  all  good 
cheer.  A  dark  home  makes  bad  boys  and  bad  girls, 
in  preparation  for  bad  men  and  bad  women. 

Above  all,  take  into  your  homes  Christian  prin- 
ciple. Can  it  be  that  in  any  of  our  comfortable  homes 
the  voice  of  prayer  is  never  Hfted !  What !  No  sup- 
plication at  night  for  protection  ?  What !  No  thanks- 
giving in  the  morning  for  care?   How  w>ll  you  an- 

130  VOL.  XI. 


Harbor  of  Home 

swer  God  in  the  day  of  judgment  with  reference  to 
your  children  ?  Oh,  if  you  do  not  inculcate  Christian 
principle  in  the  hearts  of  your  children,  and  you  do 
not  warn  them  against  evil,  and  you  do  not  invite 
them  to  holiness  and  to  God,  and  they  wander  off  into 
dissipation  and  into  infidelity,  and  at  last  make  ship- 
wreck of  their  immortal  souls,  on  their  deathbed  and 
in  the  day  of  judgment  they  will  curse  you ! 

My  mind  runs  back  to  one  of  the  best  of  early 
homes.  Prayer,  like  a  roof  over  it.  Peace,  like  an 
atmosphere  in  it.  Parents,  personifications  of  faith  in 
trial  and  comfort  in  darkness.  The  two  pillars  of  that 
earthly  home  long  ago  crumbled  to  dust.  But  shall 
I  ever  forget  that  earthly  home?  Yes,  when  the 
flower  forgets  the  sun  that  warms  it.  Yes,  when  the 
mariner  forgets  the  star  that  guided  him.  Yes,  when 
love  has  gone  out  on  the  heart's  altar,  and  memory 
has  emptied  its  urn  into  forgetfulness.  Then,  home 
of  my  childhood,  I  will  forget  thee;  the  family  altar 
of  a  father's  importunity  and  a  mother's  tenderness, 
the  voices  of  affection,  the  funerals  of  our  dead ;  father 
and  mother  with  interlocked  arms  like  intertwining 
branches  of  trees  making  a  perpetual  arbor  of  love 
and  peace  and  kindness  —  then  I  will  forget  thee  — 
then,  and  only  then.  You  know,  that  a  hundred  times 
you  have  been  kept  out  of  sin  by  the  memory  of  such 
a  scene  as  I  have  been  describing.  You  have  often 
had  raging  temptations,  but  you  know  what  has  held 
you  with  supernatural  grasp.  I  tell  you  a  man  who 
has  had  such  a  good  home  as  that  never  gets  over  it, 
and  a  man  who  has  had  a  bad  early  home  never  gets 
over  it. 

Again,  I  remark  that  home  is  a  type  of  heaven, 
At  our  best  estate  we  are  only  pilgrims  and  strangers 
here.  "  Heaven  is  our  home."  Death  will  never 
VOL.  XI.  131 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

knock  at  the  door  of  that  mansion,  and  in  all  that 
country  there  is  not  a  single  grave.  How  glad  parents 
are  in  holiday  time  to  gather  their  children  home 
again!  But  I  have  noticed  that  almost  always  there 
is  a  son  or  a  daughter  absent  —  absent  from  home, 
perhaps  absent  from  the  country,  perhaps  absent  from 
the  world.  Oh,  how  glad  our  Heavenly  Father  will 
be  when  he  gets  all  his  children  home  with  him  in 
heaven!  And  how  delightful  it  will  be  for  brothers 
and  sisters  to  meet  after  long  separation !  Once  they 
parted  at  the  door  of  the  tomb;  now  they  meet  at  the 
door  of  immortality.  Once  they  saw  only  "  through 
a  glass,  darkly;  "  now  it  is  "  face  to  face,"  corruption, 
incorruption ;  mortality,  immortality.  Where  are 
now  all  their  sins  and  sorrows  and  troubles?  Over- 
whelmed in  the  Red  Sea  of  death  while  they  passed 
through  dryshod.  Gates  of  pearl,  capstones  of  ame- 
thyst, thrones  of  dominion  do  not  stir  my  soul  so 
much  as  the  thought  of  home.  Once  there,  let  earthly 
sorrows  howl  like  storms  and  roll  Uke  seas.  Home ! 
Let  thrones  rot  and  empires  wither.  Home !  Let  the 
world  die  in  earthquake  struggle  and  be  buried  amid 
procession  of  planets  and  dirge  of  spheres.  Home! 
Let  everlasting  ages  roll  in  irresistible  sweep.  Home  I 
No  sorrow,  no  crying.  No  tears.  No  death.  But 
liome,  sweet  home;  home,  beautiful  home,  everlast- 
ing home,  home  with  each  other,  home  with  angels, 
home  with  God. 

One  night,  lying  on  my  lounge,  when  very  tired, 
my  children  all  around  about  me  in  full  romp  and 
hilarity  and  laughter  —  on  the  lounge,  half  awake 
and  half  asleep,  I  dreamed  this  dream:  I  was  in  a 
far  country.  It  was  not  Persia,  although  more  than 
Oriental  luxuriance  crowned  the  cities.  It  was  not 
the  tropics,  although  more  than  tropical  fruitfulness 

132  VOL.  XI. 


Harbor  of  Home 

filled  the  gardens.  It  was  not  Italy,  although  more 
than  Italian  softness  filled  the  air.  And  I  wandered 
around  looking  for  thorns  and  nettles,  but  I  found 
that  none  of  them  grew  there,  and  I  saw  the  sun 
rise,  and  I  watched  to  see  it  set,  but  it  sank  not.  And 
I  saw  the  people  in  holiday  attire,  and  I  said :  "  When 
will  they  put  off  this  and  put  on  workmen's  garb  and 
again  delve  in  the  mine  or  swelter  at  the  forge  ?  " 
but  they  never  put  off  the  holiday  attire.  And  I  wan- 
dered in  the  suburbs  of  the  city  to  find  the  place 
where  the  dead  sleep,  and  I  looked  all  along  the  line 
of  the  beautiful  hills,  the  place  where  the  dead  might 
most  blissfully  sleep;  and  I  saw  towers  and  castles, 
but  not  a  mausoleum  or  a  monument  or  a  white  slab 
could  I  see.  And  I  went  into  the  chapel  of  the  great 
town  and  I  said :  "  Where  do  the  poor  worship  and 
where  are  the  hard  benches  on  which  they  sit  ?  "  And 
the  answer  was  made  me :  "  We  have  no  poor  in  this 
country."  And  then  I  wandered  out  to  find  the  hovels 
of  the  destitute,  and  I  found  mansions  of  amber  and 
ivory  and  gold,  but  not  a  tear  could  I  see,  not  a  sigh 
could  I  hear,  and  I  was  bewildered  and  I  sat  down 
under  the  branches  of  a  great  tree  and  I  said,  "  Where 
am  I  ?  And  whence  comes  all  this  scene  ?  "  And  then 
out  from  among  the  leaves,  and  up  the  flowery  paths, 
and  across  the  bright  streams  there  came  a  beautiful 
group,  thronging  all  about  me,  and  as  I  saw  them 
come,  I  thought  I  knew  their  step,  and  as  they 
shouted,  I  thought  I  knew  their  voices;  yet  they  were 
so  gloriously  arrayed  that  I  bowed  as  stranger  to 
stranger.  But  when  again  they  clapped  their  hands 
and  shouted,  "Welcome,  welcome!"  the  mystery  all 
vanished,  and  I  found  that  time  had  gone  and  eternity 
had  come,  and  we  were  all  together  again  in  our  new 
home  in  heaven.  And  I  looked  around  and  I  said: 
VOL.  XI.  133 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

"  Are  we  all  here  ?  "  and  the  voices  of  many  genera- 
tions responded,  "  All  here ! "  And  while  tears  of 
gladness  were  raining  down  our  cheeks,  and  the 
branches  of  the  Lebanon  cedars  were  clapping  their 
hands,  and  the  towers  of  the  great  city  were  chiming 
their  welcome,  we  all  together  began  to  leap  and  shout 
and  sing :    "  Home,  home,  home !  " 


134  VOL.  XI. 


TREATMENT  OF  PARENTS 

Prov.,  lo:  i:    "A  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother." 


TREATMENT  OF  PARENTS 

Prov.,  lo:  i:    "A  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother." 

All  parents  want  their  children  to  turn  out  well. 
However  poorly  father  and  mother  may  have  done 
themselves,  they  want  their  sons  and  daughters  to 
do  splendidly.  Up  to  forty  years  of  age  parents  may 
have  ambitions  for  themselves,  after  that  their  chief 
ambition  is  for  their  children.  Some  of  the  old-time 
names  indicate  this.  The  name  of  Abner  means  "  his 
father's  lamp."  The  name  Abigail  means  "  her 
father's  joy."  And  what  a  parental  delight  was  Solo- 
mon to  David  and  Samuel  to  Hannah  and  Joseph  to 
Jacob!  And  the  best  earthly  staflf  that  a  father  has  to 
lean  on  is  a  good  son,  and  the  strongest  arm  a  mother 
has  to  help  her  down  the  steps  of  years  is  that  of  a 
grateful  child. 

But  it  is  not  a  rare  thing  to  find  people  unfilial, 
and  often  the  parents  are  themselves  to  blame.  Aged 
persons  sometimes  become  querulous  and  snappy,  and 
the  children  have  their  hands  full  with  the  old  folks. 
Before  entering  my  profession  I  was  for  three  months 
what  is  called  a  colporteur.  One  day  in  the  country 
districts  I  stopped  at  the  house  of  a  good,  intelligent, 
genial  farmer.  The  hospitality  of  such  a  country  house 
is  especially  pleasing  to  me,  for  I  was  born  in  the 
country.  This  farmer  and  his  wife  were  hard-working 
people,  but  tried  to  make  their  home  agreeable  and  at- 
tractive. The  farmer's  father,  about  sixty-five  years 
of  age,  and  his  grandfather,  about  ninety,  were  yet 
alive  and  with  him.  Indeed,  there  were  four  genera- 
tions in  the  house,  for  the  farmer  had  some  little  chil- 
voL.  XI.  137 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

dren  playing  about  the  room.  We  gathered  at  the 
dining-table.  After  the  blessing  was  asked,  the  farmer 
put  some  of  the  meat  upon  his  plate  and  courteously 
passed  it  to  me,  when  his  father  of  sixty-five  years  of 
age  cried  out  to  his  son,  who  was  at  least  thirty  years 
of  age :  "  Why  do  you  not  pass  the  meat  as  you  al- 
ways do,  and  let  us  take  it  of!  the  plate  ourselves? 
You  are  trying  to  show  oflf  because  we  have  company." 
Meanwhile  his  grandfather  of  ninety  sat  with  his  hat  on 
at  the  table,  his  face  unclean  and  his  apparel  untidy. 
Still  the  farmer  kept  his  patience  and  equipoise,  and  I 
never  think  of  him  without  admiration.  He  must  have 
had  more  grace  than  I  ever  had. 

Because  people  are  old  they  have  no  right  to  be 
either  ungentlemanly  or  uncouth.  There  are  old 
people  so  disagreeable  that  they  have  nearly  broken 
up  some  homes.  The  young  married  man  with  whom 
the  aged  one  lives  stands  it  because  he  has  been  used 
to  it  all  his  life,  but  the  young  wife,  coming  in  from 
another  household,  can  hardly  endure  it,  and  some- 
times almost  cries  her  eyes  out.  And  when  little  chil- 
dren gather  in  the  house,  they  are  afraid  of  the  vener- 
able patriarch,  who  has  forgotten  that  he  ever  was  a 
child  himself,  and  cannot  understand  why  children 
should  ever  want  to  play  "  hide  and  seek  "  or  roll 
hoop  or  fly  kite,  and  he  becomes  impatient  at  the 
sound  from  the  nursery,  and  shouts  with  an  expendi- 
ture of  voice  that  keeps  him  coughing  fifteen  minutes 
afterwards,  "  Boys!  stop  that  racket! "  as  though  any 
boy  that  ever  amounted  to  anything  in  the  world  did 
not  begin  life  by  making  a  racket ! 

Indeed,  there  are  children  who  owe  nothing  to 
their  parents,  for  those  parents  have  been  profligates. 
My  lamented  friend,  good  and  Christian  and  lovely 
Henry  Wilson,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States, 
in  early  life  changed  his  name.     Henry  Wilson  was 

138  VOL.  XI. 


Treatment  of  Parents 

not  his  original  name.  He  dropped  his  father's  name 
because  that  father  was  a  drunkard  and  a  disgrace, 
and  the  son  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  carry  such  a 
stigma  all  his  life.  While  children  must  always  be 
dutiful,  I  sympathize  with  all  young  people  who  have 
disagreeable  or  unprincipled  old  folks  around  the 
house.  Some  of  us,  drawing  out  our  memories,  know 
that  it  is  possible,  after  sixty  or  seventy  or  eighty  or 
ninety  years  of  age,  for  the  old  to  be  kind  and  genial; 
and  the  grandest  adornment  of  a  home  is  an  aged 
father  and  an  aged  mother,  if  the  process  of  years  has 
mellowed  them.  Besides  that,  if  your  old  parents  are 
hard  to  get  along  with  now,  you  must  remember  there 
was  a  time  when  they  had  hard  work  to  get  along 
with  you.  When  you  were  about  five  or  seven  or  ten 
or  twelve  years  of  age  what  a  time  they  had  with  you ! 
If  they  had  kept  a  written  account  of  your  early  pranks 
and  misdoings,  it  would  make  a  whole  volume.  That 
time  when  you  gave  your  little  sister  a  clip;  that  time 
when  you  explored  the  depth  of  a  jar  of  sweet  things 
for  which  you  had  no  permission;  that  havoc  you  one 
day  made  with  your  jack-knife;  that  plucking  from  the 
orchard  of  unripe  fruit;  that  day  when,  instead  of  being 
at  school,  as  your  parents  supposed,  you  went  a-fish- 
ing;  and  many  a  time  did  you  imperil  your  young  life 
in  places  where  you  had  no  business  to  climb  or  swim 
or  venture.  To  get  you  through  your  first  fifteen  years 
with  your  life  and  your  good  morals  was  a  fearful 
draft  upon  parental  fidelity  and  endurance.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  that  much  of  this  present  physical  and  mental 
weakness  in  your  parents  may  have  been  a  result  of 
your  early  waywardness.  You  made  such  large  and 
sudden  drafts  upon  the  bank  of  their  patience  that  you 
broke  the  bank.  They  were  injured  in  being  thrown 
while  trying  to  break  the  colt.  It  is  a  matter  of  only 
common  honesty  that  you  pay  back  to  them  some  of 
VOL.  XI.  139 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  long-suffering  which  they  paid  to  you.  A  father 
said  to  his  son,  "  Surely  no  father  ever  had  as  bad  a 
boy  as  I  have."  "  Yes,"  said  the  son,  "  my  grand- 
father had."  It  is  about  the  same  from  generation  to 
generation,  and  parents  need  to  be  patient  with  chil- 
dren, and  children  dutiful  to  their  parents.  Taking 
it  for  granted  that  those  who  hear  me  to-day  have  had 
a  good  parentage,  I  want  to  urge  upon  all  the  young 
the  fact  that  the  happiness  and  longevity  of  parents 
much  depend  upon  the  right  behavior  of  their  chil- 
dren, and  I  can  do  this  no  more  effectually  than  by 
demonstrating  the  truth  of  my  text,  "  A  foolish  son  is 
the  heaviness  of  his  mother." 

Perhaps  some  young  man  astray  may  be  brought 
back  by  a  thought  of  how  they  feel  about  him  at 
home.  A  French  soldier  lay  wounded  and  dying  in 
the  hospital  at  Geneva,  Switzerland.  His  father,  at 
home,  seventy  years  of  age,  heard  of  his  son's  suf- 
fering, and  started,  and  took  the  long  journey,  and 
found  the  hospital;  and  as  he  entered  the  son  cried: 
"  O  father,  I  am  so  glad  you  have  come  to  see  me 
die."  "  No,"  said  the  father;  "  you  are  not  going  to 
die;  your  mother  is  waiting  for  you,  and  I  am  going 
to  take  you  home;  I  have  brought  you  money  and 
everything  you  need."  "  No,"  said  the  soldier,  "  they 
give  me  here  everything  thaf  is  nice  to  eat,  but  I 
have  no  appetite,  and  I  must  die."  Then  the  father 
took  from  his  knapsack  a  loaf  of  rye-bread,  such  as  the 
plain  people  of  his  country  ate,  and  said,  "  Here  is  a 
loaf  of  bread  your  mother  made,  and  I  am  sure  you 
can  eat  this;  she  sent  it  to  you."  Then  the  soldier 
brightened  up,  and  took  the  bread  and  ate  it,  and  said 
"  It  is  so  good,  the  bread  from  home,  the  bread  that 
my  mother  made !  "  No  wonder  that  in  a  few  days 
he  had  recovered.  O  young  man,  wounded  in  the  bat- 
tle of  life,  and  discouraged,  given  up  by  yourself,  and 

140  VOL.  XI. 


Treatment  of  Parents 

given  up  by  others,  the  old  folks  at  the  country  fire- 
side have  not  given  you  up.  I  bring  you  bread  from 
home.  It  may  be  plain  bread,  but  it  is  that  bread  of 
which  if  a  man  eat  he  never  again  shall  hunger.  Bread 
from  home! 

Carrying  out  the  idea  of  my  text,  I  remark  that  a 
reckless  or  dissipated  son  makes  a  heavy-hearted  pa- 
rent because  it  hurts  the  family  pride.  It  is  not  the 
given  name,  or  the  name  which  you  received  at  the 
christening,  that  is  injured  by  your  prodigality.  You 
cannot  hurt  your  name  of  John  or  George  or  Henry 
or  Mary  or  Frances  or  Rachel,  because  there  have  been 
thousands  of  people,  good  and  bad,  having  those 
names,  and  you  cannot  improve  or  depreciate  the  re- 
spectability of  those  given  names.  But  it  is  your  last 
name,  your  family  name,  that  is  at  your  mercy.  All 
who  bear  that  name  are  bound,  before  God  and  man, 
not  to  damage  its  happy  significance.  You  are 
charged,  by  all  the  generations  of  the  past  and  all  the 
generations  to  come,  to  do  your  share  for  the  protec- 
tion and  the  honor  and  the  integrity  of  that  name. 
You  have  no  right,  my  young  friend,  by  a  bad  life  to 
blot  the  old  family  Bible  containing  the  story  of  the 
marriage  and  births  and  deaths  of  the  years  gone  by, 
or  to  cast  a  blot  upon  the  family  Bibles  whose  records 
are  yet  to  be  opened.  There  are  in  our  American  city- 
directories  names  that  always  suggest  commercial  dis- 
honesty or  libertinism  or  cruelty  or  meanness,  just 
because  one  man  or  woman  bearing  that  name  cursed 
it  forever  by  miscreancy.  Look  out  how  you  stab 
the  family  name!  It  is  especially  dear  to  your  mother. 
She  was  not  born  under  that  name.  She  was  born 
under  another  name,  but  the  years  passed  on  and  she 
came  to  young  womanhood,  and  she  saw  some  one 
with  whom  she  could  trust  her  happiness,  her  life,  and 
her  immortal  destiny;  and  she  took  his  name,  took  it 
VOL.  XI.  141 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

while  the  orange  blossoms  were  filling  the  air  with 
fragrance,  took  it  with  joined  hands,  took  it  while  the 
heavens  witnessed.  She  chose  it  out  of  all  the  family 
names  since  the  world  stood,  for  better  or  worse, 
through  sickness  and  through  health,  by  cradles  and 
by  graves.  Yea,  she  put  off  her  old  family  name  to 
take  the  family  name  you  now  wear,  and  she  has  done 
her  part  to  make  it  an  honorable  name.  How  heavy 
a  trouble  you  put  upon  her  when,  by  misdeeds,  you 
wrench  that  name  from  its  high  significance !  To  haul 
it  down  from  your  mother's  forehead  and  trample  it 
in  the  dust  would  be  criminal.  Your  father's  name 
may  not  be  a  distinguished  name,  but  I  hope  it  stands 
for  something  good.  It  may  not  be  famous  like  that 
of  Homer,  the  father  of  epic  poetry,  or  Izaak  Walton, 
the  father  of  angling,  or  /Eschylus,  the  father  of  trag- 
edy, or  Ethelwold,  the  father  of  monks,  or  Herodotus, 
the  father  of  history,  or  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  father 
of  moral  philosophy,  or  Abraham,  the  father  of  the 
faithful,  but  your  father  has  a  name  in  a  small  circle 
as  precious  to  him  as  theirs  in  a  larger  circle.  Look 
out  how  you  tarnish  it ! 

Further,  the  recklessness  and  dissipation  of  a 
young  man  are  a  cause  of  parental  distress  at  a  time 
when  the  parent  is  least  able  to  bear  it.  The  vicissi- 
tudes of  life  have  left  their  impression  upon  those 
parents.  The  eye  is  not  as  clear  as  once,  nor  the  hear- 
ing as  acute,  nor  the  nerves  as  steady,  nor  the  step  as 
strong,  and  with  the  tide  of  incoming  years  comes  the 
weight  of  unfilial  behavior.  You  take  your  parents  at 
a  great  disadvantage,  for  they  cannot  stand  as  much 
as  they  once  could.  They  have  not  the  elasticity  of 
feeling  with  which  once  they  could  throw  off  trouble. 
That  shoulder,  now  somewhat  bent,  cannot  bear  as 
heavy  a  burden  as  once  it  could.  At  the  time  when 
the  machinery  is  getting  worn  out  you  put  upon  it  the 

142  VOL.  XI. 


Treatment  of  Parents 

most  terrific  strain.  At  sixty  and  seventy  years  the 
vitality  is  not  "so  strong  as  at  thirty  or  forty.  Surely 
they  are  descending  the  down  grade  of  life  swiftly 
enough  without  any  need  of  your  increasing  the  mo- 
mentum. They  will  be  gone  soon  enough  without 
your  pushing  them  away.  Call  in  all  the  doctors  who 
ever  lived  since  Hippocrates  raised  medicine  from  a 
superstition  to  a  science,  and  they  could  not  cure  the 
heartbreak  of  a  mother  over  her  ruined  boy.  There 
may  be,  as  some  suppose,  enough  herbs  on  earth,  if 
discovered,  to  cure  all  the  ailments  of  the  body;  but 
nothing  save  a  leaf  from  the  tree  of  heavenly  Paradise 
can  cure  a  wound  made  by  a  foolish  son  who  is  the 
heaviness  of  his  mother. 

Perhaps  it  is  a  good  thing  that  cruel  treatment  by 
a  child  abbreviates  a  parent's  life;  for  what  is  there 
desirable  in  a  father's  life  or  a  mother's  life  if  its  peace 
be  gone?  Do  you  not  think  death  is  something  benef- 
icent if  it  stops  the  mother's  heart  from  aching  and 
her  eyes  from  weeping,  and  says :  "  You  need  not 
bear  the  excruciation  any  longer.  Go  and  sleep.  I 
will  put  the  defense  of  a  marble  slab  between  you  and 
that  boy's  outrages.  Go  now  where  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling  and  the  weary  are  at  rest?  "  At  the 
departure  of  such  mothers  let  the  music  be  an  anthem 
instead  of  a  dirge.  While  you  and  I  hear  no  sound, 
yet  there  are  at  this  moment  tens  of  thousands  of 
parental  hearts  breaking.  All  care  was  taken  with  the 
boy's  schooling,  all  good  counsels  given,  and  the  equip- 
ment for  a  sober  and  earnest  and  useful  life  was  pro- 
vided, but  it  has  all  gone,  and  the  foolish  son  has  be- 
come the  heaviness  of  his  mother. 

Much  of  the  poignancy  of  the  parental  grief  arises 
from  the  ingratitude  of  such  behavior.  What  an  un- 
dertaking it  is  to  conduct  a  family  through  the  ail- 
ments and  exposures  of  early  life!  Talk  about  the 
VOL.  XI.  143 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

skill  demanded  of  a  sea-captain  commanding  a  ship 
across  the  ocean !  That  requires  less  skill  than  to  navi- 
gate a  young  soul  in  safety  across  the  infantile  and 
boyhood  years.  The  sicknesses  that  assault,  the  temp- 
tations that  entrap,  the  anxieties  that  are  excited! 
Young  man,  you  will  never  know  what  your  mother 
has  suffered  for  you.  You  will  never  know  how  your 
father  has  toiled  for  you.  You  have  been  in  all  their 
thoughts,  in  all  their  plans,  in  all  their  prayers,  from 
the  time  your  first  breath  was  drawn  to  this  moment's 
respiration.  What  they  could  do  for  your  health,  what 
they  could  do  for  your  happiness,  what  they  could  do 
for  your  mind,  what  they  could  do  for  your  soul,  have 
been  absorbing  questions.  To  earn  a  livelihood  for 
you  has  not  always  been  an  easy  thing  for  your  father. 
By  what  fatigues  of  body  and  what  disturbances  of 
mind  and  long  years  of  struggle,  in  which  sometimes 
the  losses  were  greater  than  the  gains,  he  got  bread 
for  you,  paying  for  it  in  the  sweat  of  his  own  brow 
and  the  red  drops  of  his  own  heart's  blood !  He  looks 
older  than  he  ought  to  look  at  his  years,  for  it  has 
been  work,  work,  work.  Many  a  time  he  felt  like  giv- 
ing up  the  battle,  but  when  he  looked  at  your  helpless- 
ness and  the  helplessness  of  the  household,  then  he 
nerved  himself  up  anew  and  said :  "  By  the  help  of 
God  I  will  not  stop;  my  children  must  have  home  and 
education  and  advantages  and  a  comfortable  starting 
in  the  world,  and  I  must  get  a  little  something  ahead, 
so  that  if  I  am  taken  away  these  helpless  ones  will  not 
be  turned  out  on  the  cold  charities  of  the  world," 
Yes,  your  father  has  been  a  good  friend  to  you.  He 
has  never  told  any  one,  and  he  never  will  tell  any  one 
of  the  sacrifices  he  has  made  for  you.  And  he  is  ready 
to  keep  right  on  until  unto  that  hand  that  has  been 
toiling  for  you  all  these  years  shall  come  the  very 

144  VOL,  XI. 


Treatment  of  Parents 

numbness  of  death.  You  cannot  afford  to  break  his 
heart.  But  you  are  doing  it.  Yes,  you  are.  '  You 
have  driven  the  dagger  clear  in  up  to  the  hilt. 

And  your  mother  —  I  warrant  she  has  never  told 
you  much  about  the  nights  when  you  were  down  with 
scarlet  fever,  or  diphtheria,  and  she  slept  not  a  wink, 
or  falling  into  drowsiness,  your  first  cry  awakened 
her,  and  brought  the  words,  "  What  is  it,  my  dear?  " 
Oh,  if  the  old  rocking-chair  could  speak!  Oh,  if  the 
cradle  could  only  tell  its  story  of  years!  And  when 
you  got  better,  and  were  fretful  and  hard  to  please,  as 
is  usual  in  convalescence,  she  kept  her  patience  so  well, 
and  was  as  kind  as  you  were  unreasonable  and  cross. 
Oh,  the  midnights  of  motherly  watching,  how  can  you 
keep  silence?  Speak  out  and  tell  that  wandering 
young  man  the  story  that  he  so  much  needs  to  hear. 

By  the  by,  I  wonder  what  has  become  of  our  old 
cradle  in  which  all  of  us  children  were  rocked !  I  must 
ask  my  sister  when  I  see  her  next  time.  We  were  a 
large  family,  and  that  old  cradle  was  going  a  good 
many  years.  I  remember  just  how  it  looked.  It  was 
old-fashioned  and  had  no  tapestry.  Its  two  sides  and 
canopy  all  of  plain  wood,  but  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  sound  sleeping  in  that  cradle,  and  many  aches  and 
pains  were  soothed  by  it  as  it  moved  to  and  fro  by 
day  and  night.  Most  vividly  I  remember  that  the 
rockers,  which  came  out  from  under  the  cradle,  were 
on  the  top  and  side  very  smooth,  so  smooth  that  they 
actually  glistened.  They  must  have  been  worn  smooth 
by  a  foot  that  long  ago  ceased  its  journey.  How  tired 
the  foot  that  pressed  it  must  sometimes  have  become! 
But  it  did  not  stop  for  that.  It  went  right  on  and  rocked 
for  Phcebe  the  first,  and  for  DeWitt  the  last.  And  it 
was  a  cradle  like  that,  or  perhaps  of  modern  make  and 
richly  upholstered,  in  which  your  mother  rocked  you. 
VOL.  XI.  145 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Can  it  be  that  for  all  that  care  and  devotion  you  are 
paying  her  back  with  harsh  words  or  neglects  or  a 
wicked  life?  Then  I  must  tell  you  that  you  are  the 
"  foolish  son  which  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother." 
Better  go  home  and  kiss  her,  and  ask  her  forgiveness. 
Kiss  her  on  the  lips  that  have  so  often  prayed  for  you. 
Kiss  her  on  the  forehead  that  so  often  ached  for  you. 
Kiss  her  on  the  eyes  that  have  so  often  wept  over 
you.  Better  go  right  away,  for  she  will  be  dead  before 
long.  And  how  will  you  feel  then  after  you  realize 
it  is  your  waywardness  that  killed  her?  Romulus 
made  no  law  against  parricide,  or  the  slaying  of  a 
father,  matricide,  or  the  slaying  of  a  mother,  because 
he  considered  such  crimes  impossible,  and  for  six 
hundred  years  there  was  not  a  crime  of  that  sort  in 
Rome.  But  then  came  Lucius  Ostius,  and  slew  his 
father,  proving  the  crime  possible.  Now,  do  you  not 
think  that  the  child  who  by  wrong  behavior  sends  his 
father  to  a  premature  grave  is  a  parricide,  or  who  by 
misconduct  hastens  a  mother  into  the  tomb  is  a 
matricide? 

The  heaviness  of  parents  over  a  son's  depravity  is 
all  the  greater  because  it  means  spiritual  disaster  and 
overthrow.  That  is  the  worst  thing  about  it.  In  the 
pension  regulations  a  soldier  receives  for  loss  of  both 
hands  or  feet  seventy-two  dollars  a  month.  For 
loss  of  one  hand  and  one  foot  thirty-six  dollars. 
For  loss  of  a  hand  or  foot  thirty  dollars.  For 
loss  of  both  eyes  seventy-two  dollars.  But  who 
can  calculate  the  value  of  a  whole  man  ruined 
body,  mind  and  soul?  How  can  parents  have 
any  happiness  about  your  future  destiny,  O  young 
man  gone  astray?  Can  such  opposite  lives  as 
you  and  they  are  living  come  out  at  the  same  place? 
Can  holiness  and  dissipation  enter  the  same  gate? 

146  VOL.  XI. 


Treatment  of  Parents 

Where  is  the  little  prayer  that  was  taught  you  at  your 
mother's  knee?  Is  the  God  they  loved  and  wor- 
shiped your  God?  It  is  your  soul  about  which  they 
are  most  anxious,  your  soul  that  shall  live  after  the 
earth  itself  shall  be  girdled  with  flames,  and  the  flames, 
dying  down,  will  leave  the  planet  only  a  live  coal,  and 
the  live  coal  shall  have  become  ashes,  and  then  the 
ashes  shall  be  scattered  by  the  whirlwinds  of  the 
Almighty. 

"  But,"  says  some  young  man,  "  my  mother  is 
gone;  my  behavior  will  not  trouble  her  any  more." 

Oh  that  these  lips  had  language!    Life  has  passed 
With  me  but  roughly  since  I  heard  thee  last. 

What!  Is  she  dead?  How  you  startle  me!  Is  she 
dead?  Then,  perhaps,  you  have  her  picture.  Hang 
it  up  in  your  room  in  the  place  where  you  oftenest  sit. 
Go  and  study  her  features,  and  while  you  are  looking 
the  past  will  come  back,  and  you  may  hear  her  voice, 
which  is  now  so  still,  speak  again,  saying:  "  From  my 
heavenly  home,  my  dear  boy,  I  solicit  your  reforma- 
tion and  salvation.  Go  to  the  Christ  who  pardoned 
me,  and  he  will  pardon  you.  My  heaven  will  not  be 
complete  till  I  hear  of  your  changing.  But  I  will  hear 
of  it  right  away,  for  there  is  joy  up  here  when  one 
sinner  repenteth ;  and  would  that  the  next  news  of  that 
kind  that  comes  up  here  might  come  up  regarding 
you,  O  my  child  of  many  tears  and  anxieties  and 
prayers!  Come,  my  boy,  do  you  not  hear  your 
mother's  voice?  O  my  son,  my  son,  would  God  that 
I  could  die  for  thee!  O  my  son,  my  son!  "  Young 
man !  what  news  for  heaven  would  be  your  conversion. 
Swifter  than  telegraphic  wire  ever  carried  congratu- 
lations to  a  wedding  or  a  coronation  would  fly  heaven- 
voL.  XI.  147 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ward  the  news  of  your  deliverance;  and  whether  the 
one  most  interested  in  your  salvation  were  on  river- 
bank  or  in  the  temple  or  on  the  battlements  or  in  the 
g^eat  tower,  the  message  would  be  instantly  received, 
and  before  this  service  is  closed  angel  would  cry  to 
angel:  "Have  you  heard  the  news?  Out  yonder  is 
a  mother  who  has  just  heard  of  her  wayward  boy's 
redemption.  Another  prodigal  has  got  home.  The 
dead  is  alive  again,  and  the  lost  is  found.  Halle- 
lujah!  Amen!" 


148  VOL,  XI. 


ORPAH'S  RETREAT 

Ruth,  i:  14:    "And  they  lifted  up  their  voices  and  wept,  and 
Orpah  kissed  her  mother-in-law,  but  Ruth  clave  unto  her." 


ORPHA'S  RETREAT 

Ruth,  1 :  14:    "  And  they  lifted  up  their  voices  and  wept,  and 
Orpah  kissed  her  mother-in-law,  but  Ruth  clave  unto  her." 

Moab  was  a  heathen  land.  Naomi  is  about  to 
leave  it  and  go  into  the  land  of  Bethlehem,  She  has 
two  daughters-in-law,  Ruth  and  Orpah,  who  conclude 
to  go  with  her.  Naomi  tells  them  they  had  better  not 
leave  their  native  land  and  undertake  the  hardship  of 
the  journey,  but  they  will  not  be  persuaded.  They  all 
three  start  out  on  their  journey.  After  a  while,  Naomi, 
although  she  highly  prized  the  company  of  her  two 
daughters-in-law,  attempted  to  again  persuade  them  to 
go  back  because  of  the  hardship  and  self-denial 
through  which  they  would  be  obliged  to  go.  Ruth 
responds  in  the  words  from  which  I  once  discoursed 
to  you :  "  Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  nor  to  return 
from  following  after  thee,  for  where  thou  goest  I  will 
go,  and  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge,  thy  people  shall 
be  my  people  and  thy  God  my  God,  where  thou  diest 
will  I  die  and  there  will  I  be  buried,  the  Lord  do  so  to 
me  and  more  also,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and 
me."  Not  so  with  her  sister  Orpah.  Her  determina- 
tion had  already  been  shaken.  The  length  and  peril 
of  the  journey  began  to  appall  her,  and  she  had  wor- 
shiped the  gods  of  Moab  so  long  that  it  was  hard 
to  give  them  up.  From  that  point  Orpah  turned  back, 
the  parting  being  described  in  the  words  of  my  text: 
"  And  they  lifted  up  their  voice  and  wept  again,  and 
Orpah  kissed  her  mother-in-law,  but  Ruth  clave 
unto  her." 

Learn  from  this  story  of  Orpah  that  some  of  those 
VOL.  XI.  151 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

who  did  not  leave  the  Moab  of  their  iniquities  are  per- 
sons of  fine  susceptibility.  It  was  compassion  for 
Naomi  in  widowhood  and  sorrow  that  led  Orpah  to 
start  with  her  toward  Bethlehem.  It  was  not  because 
of  any  lack  of  affection  for  her  that  she  turned  back. 
We  know  this  from  the  grief  exhibited  at  parting.  I 
do  not  know  but  that  she  had  as  much  warmth  and 
ardor  of  nature  as  Ruth,  but  she  lacked  the  courage 
and  persistence  of  her  sister-in-law.  That  there  are 
many  with  as  fine  susceptibility  as  Orpah  who  will  not 
take  up  their  cross  and  follow  Christ,  is  a  truth  which 
needs  but  little  demonstration.  Many  of  those  who 
have  become  the  followers  of  Jesus  have  but  little  natu- 
ral impressibility.  Grace  often  takes  hold  of  the  hard- 
est heart  and  the  most  unlovely  character  and  trans- 
forms it.  It  is  a  hammer  that  breaks  rocks.  In  this, 
Christ  often  shows  his  power.  It  wants  but  little 
generalship  to  conquer  a  flat  country,  but  might  of 
artillery  and  heroism  to  take  a  fort  manned  and  ready 
for  raking  cannonade.  The  great  Captain  of  our  sal- 
vation has  forced  his  way  into  many  an  armed  castle. 
I  doubt  not  that  Christ  could  have  found  many  a  fish- 
erman naturally  more  noble-hearted  than  Simon  Peter, 
but  there  was  no  one  by  whose  conversion  he  could 
more  gloriously  have  magnified  his  grace.  The  conver- 
sion of  a  score  of  Johns  would  not  have  illustrated  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  much  as  the  conversion 
of  one  Peter.  It  would  have  been  easier  to  drive 
twenty  lambs  like  John  into  the  fold  than  to  tame  one 
lion  like  Peter.  God  has  often  made  some  of  his 
most  efficient  servants  out  of  men  naturally  unimpres- 
sionable. As  men  take  stiflF  and  unwieldy  timbers, 
and  under  huge-handed  machinery  bend  them  into  the 
hulk  of  great  ships,  thus  God  has  often  shaped  and 
bent  into  his  service  the  most  unwieldy  natures,  while 

152  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

those  naturally  impressionable  are  still  in  their  un- 
changed state. 

Oh,  how  many,  like  Orpah,  have  warm  affections 
and  yet  never  become  Christians!  Like  Orpah,  they 
know  hoiw  to  weep,  but  they  do  not  know  how  to 
pray.  Their  fineness  of  feeling  leads  them  into  the 
friendships  of  the  world,  but  not  into  communion  with 
God.  They  can  love  everybody  but  him,  who  is  alto- 
gether lovely.  All  other  sorrow  rends  their  heart,  but 
they  are  untouched  by  the  woes  of  a  dying  Christ. 
Good  news  fills  them  with  excitement,  but  the  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy  and  salvation  stir  not  their  soul. 
Anxious  to  do  what  is  right,  yet  they  rob  God.  Grate- 
ful for  the  slightest  favors,  they  make  no  return  to 
him  who  wrung  out  the  last  drop  of  blood  from  his 
heart  to  deliver  them  from  going  down  to  the  pit. 
They  would  weep  at  the  door  of  a  prison  at  the  sight 
of  a  wicked  captive  in  chains,  but  have  no  compassion 
for  their  own  souls  over  which  Satan,  like  a  grim 
jailer,  holds  the  lock  and  key.  When  repulsive,  grasp- 
ing, unsympathetic  natures  resist  the  story  of  a 
Saviour's  love,  it  does  not  excite  our  surprise ;  but  it  is 
among  the  greatest  of  wonders  that  so  many  who 
exhibit  Orpah's  susceptibility  also  exhibit  Orpah's 
obduracy.  We  are  not  surprised  that  there  is  barren- 
ness in  a  desert,  but  a  strange  thing  is  it  that  some- 
times the  Rose  of  Sharon  will  not  grow  in  a  garden. 
On  a  summer  morning  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  a 
rock  without  any  dew  on  it,  but  if,  going  among  a 
flock  of  lilies,  we  saw  in  them  no  glittering  drops,  we 
would  say,  "  What  foul  sprite  has  been  robbing  these 
vases?  "  We  are  not  surprised  that  Herod  did  not 
become  a  Christian,  but  how  strange  that  the  young 
man  Jesus  loved  for  his  sweetness  of  temper  should 
not  have  loved  the  Redeemer.  Hard-hearted  Felix 
VOL.  XI.  153 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

trembled,  proud  Nebuchadnezzar  repented,  and  cruel 
Manasseh  turned  unto  the  Lord;  but  many  a  nature, 
affectionate  and  gentle,  has  fought  successfully  against 
divine  influences.  Many  a  dove  has  refused  to  come 
in  the  window  of  the  ark,  although  finding  no  rest  for 
the  sole  of  her  foot. 

Again:  The  history  of  Orpah  impresses  upon  me 
the  truth  that  there  are  many  who  make  a  good  start- 
ing, but  after  a  while  change  their  minds  and  turn 
back.  When  these  three  mourners  start  from  their 
home  in  Moab  there  is  as  much  probability  that  Orpah 
will  reach  Bethlehem  as  that  her  sister-in-law  and  her 
mother-in-law  Naomi  will  arrive  there.  But  while 
these  continue  in  the  journey  they  commenced,  Orpah 
after  a  while  gets  discouraged  and  turns  back.  This  is 
the  history  of  many  a  soul.  Perhaps  it  was  during 
a  revival  of  religion  they  resolved  upon  a  Christian 
life,  and  made  preparations  to  leave  Moab.  Before 
that  they  were  indifferent  to  the  sanctuary,  and  they 
looked  upon  churches  as  necessary  evils.  The  min- 
ister almost  always  preached  poor  sermons,  because 
they  had  not  the  heart  to  hear  them.  They  thought 
the  bread  was  not  good  because  their  appetite  was 
poor.  Religion  did  very  well  for  invalids  and  the  aged, 
but  they  had  no  desire  for  it.  Suddenly  a  change 
came  upon  their  soul.  They  found  that  something 
must  be  done.  Every  night  there  was  a  thorn  in  their 
pillow.  There  was  gall  in  their  wine.  They  found 
that  their  pleasures  were  only  false  lights  of  a  swamp 
that  rise  out  of  decay  and  death.  Losing  their  self- 
control  they  were  startled  by  their  own  prayer,  "  God 
be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  They  did  not  suspect  it, 
but  the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  their  soul.  Without  think- 
ing what  they  were  doing,  they  brushed  the  dust  off 
the  family  Bible.  The  ground  did  not  feel  as  firm 
under  them  nor  did  the  air  seem  as  bright.    They  tried 

154    ^  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

to  dam  back  the  flood  of  their  emotions,  but  the  at- 
tempt failed,  and  they  confessed  their  anguish  of  soul 
before  they  meant  to.  The  secret  was  out!  They 
wanted  to  know  what  they  must  do  to  be  saved.  With 
Ruth  and  Naomi,  weeping  Orpah  started  for  the  land 
of  Bethlehem. 

They  longed  for  the  Sabbath  to  come.  Straight  as 
an  arrow  to  the  mark  the  sermon  struck  them.  They 
thought  the  minister  must  have  heard  of  their  case  and 
was  preaching  right  at  them.  They  thought  the  ser- 
mon was  very  short,  nor  did  they  once  coil  themselves 
up  in  their  pew  with  their  eyes  shut  and  head  averted 
with  an  air  of  unmoved  dignity.  They  began  to  pray 
with  an  earnestness  that  astonished  themselves  and 
astonished  others.  Shoving  the  plane  or  writing  up 
accounts  or  walking  the  street,  when  you  might  have 
thought  their  mind  entirely  upon  the  world,  they  were 
saying  within  themselves:  "  Oh,  that  I  were  a  Chris- 
tian ! "  Orpah  is  fully  started  on  the  road  to  Beth- 
lehem. Christian  friends  observing  the  religious  anx- 
iety of  the  awakened  soul  say,  "  He  must  certainly  be 
a  Christian.  There  is  another  soldier  in  Christ's  ranks, 
another  sick  one  has  been  cured  of  the  leprosy."  The 
observers  turn  their  attention  another  way;  they  say, 
"  Orpah  is  safe  enough ;  she  has  gone  to  Bethlehem." 

Starting  out  for  heaven  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  arriving  there.  Remember  Lot's  wife.  She 
looked  back  with  longing  to  the  place  from  which  she 
came,  and  was  destroyed.  Half  way  between  Sodom 
and  the  city  of  Refuge  that  strange  storm  comes  upon 
her,  and  its  salt  and  brimstone  gather  on  her  garments 
until  they  are  so  stiffened  she  cannot  proceed,  nor  can 
she  lie  down,  because  of  this  dreadful  wrapping  around 
her  garments  and  limbs;  and  long  after  her  life  has 
gone  she  still  stands  there  so  covered  up  by  the  strange 
storm  that  she  is  called  a  pillar  of  salt,  as  some  sailor 
VOL.  XI.  155 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

on  ship's  deck  in  the  wintry  tempest  stands  covered 
with  a  mail  of  ice.  Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
men  have  been  destroyed  half-way  between  Sodom 
and  the  city  of  Refuge.  Orpah  might  as  well  never 
have  started  as  afterward  to  turn  back.  Yet  multi- 
tudes have  walked  in  her  footsteps.  Go  among  those 
the  least  interested  in  sacred  things  and  you  will  find 
that  they  were  once  out  of  the  land  of  Moab.  Every 
one  of  them  prayed  right  heartily  and  studied  their 
Bibles  and  frequented  the  sanctuary,  but  Lot's  wife 
looked  back  wistfully  to  Sodom,  and  Orpah  retreated 
from  the  company  of  Ruth  and  Naomi.  It  is  an  im- 
pressive thought  that  after  Orpah  had  gone  so  far  as 
actually  to  look  over  into  the  land  of  Bethlehem  she 
turned  back  and  died  in  Moab. 

Again :  Let  our  subject  impress  upon  us  the  truth 
that  those  who  have  once  felt  it  their  duty  to  leave 
their  natural  state  cannot  give  up  their  duty  and  go 
back  to  hardness  of  heart  without  a  struggle.  After 
Orpah  had  thoroughly  made  up  her  mind  to  go  back 
to  the  place  from  which  she  started,  she  went  through 
the  sad  scene  of  parting  with  Ruth  and  Naomi.  My 
text  says,  "  They  lifted  up  their  voice  and  wept."  Ah, 
my  hearers,  it  requires  more  decision  and  persever- 
ance to  stay  away  from  the  kingdom  of  God  than  to 
enter  it.  Although  she  did  not  know  it,  Orpah  passed 
through  a  greater  struggle  in  turning  back  into  the 
land  of  Moab  than  would  have  been  necessary  to  take 
her  clear  through  to  Bethlehem.  Suppose  you  that 
those  persons  who  have  remained  in  their  evil  ways 
have  had  no  struggle?  Why,  they  have  been  obliged 
to  fight  every  inch  of  their  way.  The  road  to  death 
is  not  such  easy  traveling  as  some  ministers  have  been 
accustomed  to  describe  it.  From  beginning  to  end 
it  is  fighting  against  the  sharp  sword  of  the  Spirit.  It 
is  climbing  over  the  cross.    It  is  wading  through  the 

156  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

deep  blood  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  scaling  mountains 
of  privilege.  It  is  wading  through  lakes  of  sorrow.  It 
is  breaking  over  communion  tables  and  baptismal  fonts 
and  pulpits  and  Bibles.  It  is  wedging  one's  self 
through  between  pious  kindred  who  stand  before  and 
press  us  back  and  hold  on  to  us  by  their  prayers  even 
after  we  have  passed  them  in  our  headlong  downward 
career.  No  man  ought  to  think  of  undertaking  to  go 
back  into  Moab  after  having  come  within  sight  of 
Bethlehem  unless  we  have  a  heart  that  cannot  be  made 
to  quake,  and  a  sure  foot  that  will  not  slip  among  in- 
finite perils,  and  an  arm  that  can  drive  back  the  Son 
of  God,  who  stands  in  the  center  of  the  broad  road 
spreading  out  his  arms  and  shouting  into  the  ear  of 
the  thoughtless  pilgrim,  "  Stop!    Stop!  " 

We  talk  about  taking  up.  the  cross  and  following 
Jesus,  but  that  cross  is  not  half  so  heavy  as  the  burden 
which  the  sinner  carries.  It  is  a  very  solemn  thing  to 
be  a  Christian,  but  it  is  a  more  solemn  thing  not  to  be 
a  Christian.  There  are  multitudes  who,  afraid  of  the 
self-denials  of  the  Christian,  rush  into  the  harder  self- 
denials  of  the  unbelievers.  Any  yoke  but  Christ's,  how- 
ever tight  and  galling!  Orpah  goes  back  to  her 
idolatries,  but  she  returns  weeping;  and  all  who  follow 
her  will  find  the  same  sorrows.  Just  in  proportion  as 
Gospel  advantages  have  been  numerous  will  be  the 
disturbance  of  the  heart  that  will  not  come  to  Christ. 
The  Bible  says,  in  regard  to  the  place  where  Christ 
was  buried,  "  In  the  midst  of  the  garden  there  was  a 
sepulchre ; "  and  in  the  midst  of  the  most  flowery 
enjoyments  of  the  unpardoned  there  is  a  chilliness  of 
death.  Although  they  may  pull  out  the  arrows  that 
strike  their  soul  from  the  Almighty's  quiver,  there  re- 
main a  sting  and  a  smarting.  If  men  wrench  them- 
selves away  from  Christ  they  will  bear  the  mark  of  his 
hand  by  which  he  would  have  rescued  them.  The 
VOL.  XI.  157 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

pleasures  of  the  world  may  give  temporary  relief  from 
the  upbraidings  of  conscience,  but  are  like  stupefying 
drugs  that  dull  the  pain  only  temporarily.  Ahab  has 
a  great  kingdom,  and  you  would  think  he  ought  to  be 
happy  with  his  courtiers  and  his  chariots  and  palaces; 
yet  he  goes  to  bed  sick,  because  Naboth  will  not  sell 
him  his  vineyard.  Haman  is  prime  minister  of  the 
greatest  nation  in  the  world;  yet  one  poor  man,  who 
will  not  bow  the  head,  makes  him  utterly  miserable. 
Herod  monopolizes  the  most  of  the  world's  honor, 
and  yet  is  thrown  into  a  rage  because  they  say  a  little 
child  is  born  in  Bethlehem  who  may  after  a  while  dis- 
pute his  authority.  Byron  conquered  the  world  with 
his  pen,  and  yet  said  that  he  felt  more  unhappiness 
from  the  criticism  of  the  most  illiterate  reader  than  he 
experienced  pleasure  from  the  praise  of  all  the  talented. 

My  friends,  there  is  no  solid  happiness  in  anything 
but  religion.  I  care  not  how  bright  a  home  Orpah  has 
in  Moab,  when  she  turns  away  from  duty  she  turns 
away  from  peace.  Amid  the  bacchanalia  of  Belshaz- 
zar's  feast  and  the  glittering  of  chalices,  there  always 
will  come  out  a  hand- writing  on  the  wall,  the  fearfully 
ominous  "  Tekel,"  weighed  in  the  balances  and 
found  wanting.  When  you  can  reap  harvests  off  bare 
rocks,  and  gather  balm  out  of  nightshade,  and  make 
sunlight  sleep  in  the  heart  of  sepulchers,  and  build 
a  firm  house  on  a  rocking  billow,  then  an  unpardoned 
soul  can  find  firm  enjoyment  amid  its  transgressions. 
Then  can  Orpah  go  back  to  Moab  without  weeping. 

Again:  This  subject  teaches  that  a  religious 
choice  and  the  want  of  it  frequently  divide  families. 
Ruth  and  Orpah  and  Naomi  were  tenderly  attached. 
They  were  all  widows,  and  their  lives  had  been  united 
by  a  baptism  of  tears.  In  the  fire  of  trial  their  af- 
fections had  been  forged.  Together  they  were  so 
pleasantly  united,  you  can  hardly  imagine  them  sepa- 

158  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

rated.  Yet  a  fatal  line  is  drawn  dividing  th-em  from 
each  other,  perhaps  forever.  Naomi  cannot  live  in  a 
heathen  country.  She  must  go  into  Bethlehem,  that 
there  among  the  pious  she  may  worship  the  true  God. 
Ruth  makes  a  similar  choice,  but  Orpah  rebels.  "  And 
they  lifted  up  their  voice  and  wept  again,  and  Orpah 
kissed  her  mother-in-law,  but  Ruth  clave  unto  her." 
The  history  of  this  family  of  Elimelech  is  the  history 
of  many  families  of  this  day.  How  often  it  is  that  in 
a  circle  of  relatives,  while  they  look  alike  and  walk 
alike  and  talk  alike,  there  is  a  great  difference.  Out- 
wardly united  in  the  aflfectional  relations  of  this  life, 
they  are  separated  in  the  most  important  respects. 
Some  now  are  the  children  of  light,  and  others  the 
children  of  darkness.  These  are  alive  in  Christ,  and 
those  are  dead  in  sin.  Ruth  in  the  land  of  Bethle- 
hem, Orpah  in  Moab.  Of  the  same  family  are  David 
and  Solomon,  worshipers  of  the  Most  High  God,  and 
Adonijah  and  Absalom,  who  live  and  die  the  enemies 
of  all  righteousness.  Belonging  to  the  same  family 
were  the  holy  and  devout  Eli  and  the  reckless  Phine- 
has  and  Hophni.  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  good,  and 
Pierrepont  Edwards,  the  bad,  belonged  to  the  same 
family.  Aaron  Burr,  the  dissolute,  had  a  most  excel- 
lent father.  Dying,  yet  immortal  hearer,  by  the  solem- 
nity of  the  parental  and  filial  and  conjugal  relation,  by 
the  sacredness  of  the  family  hearth,  by  the  honor  of 
the  family  name,  by  the  memory  of  departed  kindred, 
I  point  out  this  parting  of  Ruth  and  Orpah. 

Again:  This  subject  suggests  to  me  two  of  the 
prominent  reasons  why  people  refuse  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  There  may  have  been  many  other  reasons 
why  Orpah  left  her  sister  and  mother-in-law,  and 
went  back  home,  but  there  were  two  reasons  which 
I  think  were  more  prominent  than  the  rest.  She  had 
been  brought  up  in  idolatries.    She  loved  the  heathen 

VOL.  XI.  159 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

gods  which  her  ancestors  had  worshiped,  and,  though 
these  blocks  of  wood  and  stone  could  not  hear,  she 
thought  they  could  hear,  and,  though  they  could  not 
see,  she  thought  they  could  see,  and,  though  they 
could  not  feel,  she  thought  they  could  feel.  A  new 
religion  had  been  brought  to  her  attention.  She  had 
married  a  godly  man.  She  must  often  have  heard  her 
mother-in-law  talk  of  the  God  of  Israel.  She  was 
so  much  shaken  in  her  original  belief  that  she  con- 
cluded to  leave  her  idolatries,  but,  coming  to  the  mar- 
gin of  the  land  of  Bethlehem,  her  determination  failed 
her,  and  speedily  she  returned  to  her  gods.  This  is 
the  very  reason  why  multitudes  of  persons  never  be- 
come Christians.  They  cannot  bear  to  give  up  their 
gods.  Business  is  the  American  Juggernaut  that 
crushes  more  men  than  the  car  of  the  Hindoos.  To 
it  they  say  their  morning  and  evening  prayers.  A 
little  of  Christ's  religion  may  creep  into  the  Sabbath, 
but  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  Friday 
and  Saturday  are  the  days  devoted  to  this  American 
idol.  Every  hour  there  is  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar. 
Home  duties,  health  of  body,  manly  strength  and  im- 
mortal affections  must  all  burn  in  this  holocaust. 
Men  act  as  though  they  could  take  their  bonds  and 
mortgages  and  saws  and  axes  and  trowels  and  day- 
books with  them  into  heaven.  There  are  many  who 
have  no  unholy  thirst  for  gold,  yet  who  are  devoting 
themselves  to  their  worldly  occupations  with  a  ruin- 
ous intensity.  Men  of  the  stock  exchange,  men  of 
the  yardstick,  men  of  the  saw,  men  of  the  trowel,  men 
of  the  day-book,  what  will  become  of  you,  if  unfor- 
given,  in  the  great  day  when  there  are  no  houses  to 
build,  and  no  goods  to  sell,  and  no  bargains  to  make  ? 
It  is  possible  to  devote  one's  self  even  to  a  lawful  call- 
ing until  it  becomes  sinful.  There  is  no  excuse  on 
the  earth  or  under  the  earth  for  the  neglect  of  our 

l60  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

deathless  spirit.  Lydia  was  a  seller  of  purple,  yet 
she  did  not  allow  her  occupation  to  keep  her  from 
becoming  a  Christian.  Daniel  was  secretary  of  the 
State  and  attorney-general  in  the  empire  of  Baby- 
lon, yet  three  times  a  day  he  found  time  to  pray  with 
his  face  toward  Jerusalem.  The  man  who  has  no 
time  to  attend  to  religion  will  have  no  time  to  enter 
heaven. 

But  there  are  others  who,  while  their  worldly  oc- 
cupation has  no  particular  fascination  over  them,  are 
entirely  absorbed  in  the  gains  that  come  to  that  occu- 
pation. This  is  the  worship  of  Mammon.  The  jingle 
of  dollars  and  cents  is  the  only  Htany  they  care  for. 
Though  in  the  last  day  the  earth  itself  will  not  be 
worth  a  farthing,  a  heap  of  ashes  scattered  in  the 
whirlwind,  they  are  now  giving  their  time  and  eter- 
nity for  the  acquisition  of  so  much  of  it  as  you  might 
at  last  hold  in  the  hollow  of  one  hand.  The  American 
Indian  who  gave  enough  land  to  make  a  State  out  of 
for  a  string  of  beads,  made  a  princely  bargain  com- 
pared with  the  speculation  of  that  man  who  gains  the 
whole  world  and  loses  his  own  soul.  How  much 
comfort  do  the  men  take  who  died  unforgiven  ten 
years  ago,  leaving  large  fortunes  to  their  heirs  ?  Do 
they  ever  come  up  to  count  the  gold  they  hoarded  or 
walk  through  the  mansions  they  built?  Though  they 
could  have  bought  an  empire,  they  have  not  now  as 
much  money  as  you  have  this  moment  in  your  pocket. 
Solomon  looked  upon  his  palace  and  the  grounds 
surrounding  it,  pools  rimmed  with  gold,  and  circling 
roads  along  which,  at  times,  rushed  his  fourteen  hun- 
dred chariots,  while  under  the  outbranching  syca- 
mores and  cedars  walked  the  apes  and  peacocks, 
which  by  the  navy  of  Hiram  had  been  brought  from 
Tarshish,  and  from  the  window  curtains  with  em- 
broidered gold  and  purple  through  which  came  out 

VOL.  XI.  i6i 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  thrill  of  harps  and  psalteries  mingling  with  the 
song  of  the  waters.  When  Solomon  saw  that  all  these 
luxuries  of  sight  and  sound  had  been  purchased  by 
his  wealth,  he  broke  forth  in  the  exclamation, 
"  Money  answereth  all  things."  But  we  cannot  re- 
ceive it  as  literal.  It  cannot  still  the  voice  of  con- 
science. It  cannot  drown  the  sorrows  of  the  soul. 
It  cannot  put  a  bribe  in  the  hand  of  death.  It  can- 
not unlock  the  gate  of  heaven.  The  tower  of  Siloam 
fell  and  killed  eighteen  of  its  admirers,  but  this  idol 
to  whose  worship  the  exchanges  and  banks  and  cus- 
tom-houses of  the  world  have  been  dedicated,  will  fall 
and  crush  to  death  its  thousands.  But  I  cannot 
enumerate  the  idolatries  to  which  men  give  them- 
selves. They  are  kept  by  them  from  a  religious  life. 
"  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon,"  and  the  first 
thing  that  Christ  does  when  he  comes  into  the  tem- 
ple of  the  soul  is  to  drive  out  the  exchangers. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  gods  of  Moab  that  made 
Orpah  leave  her  sister  and  mother-in-law  and  turn 
back.  She  doubtless  had  a  dread  of  the  hardship  to 
which  they  would  be  exposed  on  the  journey  to  Beth- 
lehem, and  Orpah  was  not  alone  in  the  fear.  Doubt- 
less some  of  you  have  been  appalled  and  driven  back 
by  the  self-denials  of  the  Christian  life.  The  taunt  of 
the  world,  the  charge  of  hypocrisy  which  they  would 
sometimes  be  obliged  to  confront,  has  kept  many 
away  from  the  land  of  Bethlehem.  They  spend  their 
life  in  counting  the  cost  and,  because  a  Christian  life 
demands  so  much  courage  and  faith,  they  dare  not 
begin  to  build.  Perhaps  they  are  courageous  in  every 
other  respect.  They  are  not  timid  in  presence  of  any 
danger  except  that  of  trusting  in  the  infinite  mercy 
of  Christ.  The  sheep  are  more  afraid  of  the  shepherd 
than  of  the  wolves.    They  shrink  away  from  the  pres- 

162  VOL.  XI. 


Orpah's  Retreat 

ence  of  Christ  as  though  he  were  a  tyrant  rather  than 
a  friend  who  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother.  They 
feel  more  safe  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  where  they 
must  suffer  infinite  defeat,  than  in  the  army  of  Christ, 
which  shall  be  more  than  conquerors,  through  him 
that  hath  loved  them.  Men  shiver  and  tremble  be- 
fore religion  as  though  they  were  commanded  to 
throw  their  life  away,  as  though  it  were  a  surrender 
of  honor  and  manliness  and  reason  and  self-respect 
and  all  that  is  worth  keeping. 

What  has  God  ever  done  that  his  mercy  should 
be  doubted?  Was  there  ever  a  sorrow  of  his  frailest 
child  that  he  did  not  pity?  Was  there  ever  a  soul 
that  he  left  unhelped  in  the  darkness?  Was  there 
ever  a  martyr  that  he  did  not  strengthen  in  the 
flames  ?  Was  there  ever  a  dying  man  to  whose  relief 
he  did  not  come  at  the  cry  of  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive 
my  spirit."  Aye,  my  soul,  what  has  God  done  that 
so  basely  thou  hast  doubted  him?  Did  he  make 
the  whole  earth  a  desert  ?  Are  all  the  skies  dark  and 
storm-swept?  Is  life  all  sickness?  Is  the  air  all 
plague?  Are  there  nothing  but  rods  and  scorpions 
and  furnaces?  God  knew  how  many  suspicions  and 
unbeliefs  men  would  entertain  in  regard  to  him  and 
therefore,  after  making  a  multitude  of  plain  and 
precious  promises,  he  places  his  hand  on  his  own 
heart  and  swears  by  his  own  existence:  "As  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death 
of  him  that  dieth."  Why  then  fight  against  God? 
This  day  the  battle  rages.  Thou  art  armed  with  thy 
sins,  thy  ingratitude,  thy  neglects,  and  Christ  is  armed 
against  thee,  but  his  weapons  are  tears,  are  dying 
agonies,  are  calls  of  mercy,  and  the  battle-cry  which 
he  this  day  sends  over  thy  soul  as  he  rushes  toward 
thee  is  "  save  thee  from  going  down  to  the  pit,  for  I 
VOL.  XI.  163 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

have  found  a  ransom."  I  would  not  envy  thy  victory, 
O  hearer,  if  thou  dost  conquer,  for  what  wilt  thou  do 
with  the  weapons  thou  hast  snatched  from  the  armed 
Redeemer,  what  with  the  tears,  what  with  his  dying 
agonies,  what  with  his  calls  for  mercy?  Would  God 
that  Orpah  would  get  tired  of  Moab!  Would  God 
that  Orpah  would  keep  on  till  she  reaches  Bethle- 
hem! 


164  VOL.  XI, 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  GLEANER 

Ruth,  2:3:  "  And  she  went,  and  came,  and  gleaned  in  the 
field  after  the  reapers:  and  her  hap  was  to  light  on  a  part  o! 
the  fiejd  belonging  unto  Boaz,  who  was  of  the  kindred  oF 
Elimelech." 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  GLEANER 

Ruth,  2:  3:  "  And  she  went,  and  came,  and  gleaned  in  the 
field  after  the  reapers:  and  her  hap  was  to  light  on  a  part  of 
the  field  belonging  unto  Boaz,  who  was  of  the  kindred  of 
Elimelech." 

The  time  that  Ruth  and  Naomi  arrive  at  Bethle- 
hem is  harvest  time.  It  was  the  custom  commanded 
by  Moses  when  a  sheaf  fell  from  a  load  in  the  har- 
vest-field for  the  reapers  to  refuse  to  gather  it  up; 
that  was  to  be  left  for  the  poor  who  might  happen 
to  come  along  that  way.  If  there  were  handfuls  of 
grain  scattered  across  the  field  after  the  main  harvest 
had  been  reaped,  instead  of  raking  it,  as  farmers  do 
now,  it  was,  by  the  custom  of  the  land,  left  in  its 
place,  so  that  the  poor,  coming  along  that  way,  might 
glean  it  and  get  their  bread.  But,  you  say,  "  What 
is  the  use  of  all  these  harvest-fields  to  Ruth  and 
Naomi  ?  Naomi  is  too  old  and  feeble  to  go  out  and 
toil  in  the  sun;  and  can  you  expect  that  Ruth,  the 
young  and  the  beautiful,  should  tan  her  cheeks  and 
blister  her  hands  in  the  harvest-field?" 

Boaz  owns  a  large  farm,  and  he  goes  out  to  see 
the  reapers  gather  in  the  grain.  Coming  there,  right 
behind  the  swarthy,  sun-browned  reapers,  he  beholds 
a  beautiful  woman  gleaning  —  a  woman  more  fit  to 
bend  to  a  harp,  or  sit  upon  a  throne,  than  to  stoop 
among  the  sheaves. 

That  was  an  eventful  day!  It  was  love  at  first 
sight.  Boaz  forms  an  attachment  for  the  womanly 
gleaner  —  an  attachment  full  of  undying  interest  to 
the  Church  of  God  in  all  ages ;  while  Ruth,  with  an 
ephah,  or  nearly  a  bushel  of  barley,  goes  home  to 
Naomi  to  tell  her  the  successes  and  adventures  of 
VOL.  XI,  167 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  day.  That  Ruth,  who  left  her  native  land  of  Moab 
in  darkness,  and  traveled  so  far  impelled  by  an  un- 
dying affection  for  her  mother-in-law,  is  in  the  har- 
vest-field of  Boaz,  is  affianced  to  one  of  the  best  fam- 
ilies in  Judah,  and  becomes  in  after  time  the  ances- 
tress of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory !  Out  of  so 
dark  a  night  did  there  ever  dawn  so  bright  a  morn- 
ing? 

I  learn,  in  the  first  place,  from  this  subject  how 
trouble  develops  character.  It  was  bereavement,  pov- 
erty and  exile  that  developed,  illustrated  and  an- 
nounced to  all  ages  the  sublimity  of  Ruth's  character. 
That  is  a  very  unfortunate  mati  who  has  no  trouble. 
It  was  sorrow  that  made  John  Bunyan  the  better 
dreamer,  and  Dr.  Young  the  better  poet,  and  O'Con- 
nell  the  better  orator,  and  Bishop  Hall  the  better 
preacher,  and  Havelock  the  better  soldier,  and  Kitto 
the  better  encyclopedist,  and  Ruth  the  better  daugh- 
ter-in-law. I  once  asked  an  aged  man  in  regard  to 
his  pastor,  who  was  a  brilliant  man,  "  Why  is  it  that 
your  pastor,  so  very  brilliant,  seems  to  have  so  little 
heart  and  tenderness  in  his  sermons  ?  "  "  Well,"  he 
replied,  "  the  reason  is,  our  pastor  has  never  had  any 
trouble.  When  misfortune  comes  upon  him,  his  style 
will  be  dififerent."  After  a  while  the  Lord  took  a  child 
out  of  that  pastor's  house ;  and  though  the  preacher 
was  just  as  brilliant  as  he  was  before,  oh,  the  warmth, 
the  tenderness  of  his  discourses!  The  fact  is,  that 
trouble  is  a  great  educator.  You  see  sometimes  a 
musician  sit  down  at  an  instrument,  and  his  execu- 
tion is  cold  and  formal  and  unfeeling.  The  reason 
is  that  all  his  Hfe  he  has  been  prospered.  But  let  mis- 
fortune or  bereavement  come  to  that  man,  and  he 
sits  down  at  the  instrument,  and  you  discover  the 
pathos  in  the  first  sweep  of  the  keys.  Misfortune  and 
trials  are  great  educators.     A  young  doctor  comes 

i68  VOL.  XI. 


\ 


The  Beautiful  Gleaner 

into  a  sick  room  where  there  is  a  dying  child.  Per- 
haps he  is  very  rough  in  his  prescription,  and  very 
rough  in  his  manner,  and  rough  in  the  feeUng  of  the 
pulse,  and  rough  in  his  answer  to  the  mother's  anx- 
ious question;  but  years  roll  on,  and  there  has  been 
one  dead  in  his  own  house;  and  now  he  conies  into 
the  sick  room,  and  with  tearful  eye  he  looks  at  the 
dying  child,  and  he  says,  "  Oh,  how  this  reminds  me 
of  my  Henry !  "  Trouble,  the  great  educator.  Sor- 
row —  I  see  its  touch  in  the  grandest  painting ;  I  hear 
its  tremor  in  the  sweetest  song;  I  feel  its  power  in 
the  mightiest  argument. 

Grecian  mythology  said  that  the  fountain  of  Hip- 
pocrene  was  struck  out  by  the  foot  of  the  winged 
horse,  Pegasus,  and  I  have  often  noticed  in  life  that 
the  brightest  and  most  beautiful  fountains  of  Christian 
comfort  and  spiritual  life  have  been  struck  out  by  the 
iron-shod  hoof  of  disaster  and  calamity.  I  see  Shad- 
rach's  courage  best  by  the  flash  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
furnace.  I  see  Paul's  prowess  best  when  I  find  him 
on  the  foundering  ship  under  the  glare  of  the  light- 
ning in  the  breakers  of  Melita.  God  crowns  his 
children  amid  the  howling  of  wild  beasts  and  the 
chopping  of  blood-splashed  guillotine  and  the  crack- 
ling fires  of  martyrdom.  It  took  all  the  hostilities 
against  the  Scotch  Covenanters  and  the  fury  of  Lord 
Claverhouse  to  develop  James  Renwick  and  An- 
drew Melville  and  Hugh  McKail,  the  glorious  mar- 
tyrs of  Scotch  history.  It  took  the  stormy  sea  and 
the  December  blast  and  the  desolate  New  England 
coast  and  the  war-whoop  of  savages  to  show  forth 
the  prowess  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers: 

When  amid  the  storms  they  sang, 

And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea; 
And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
To  the  anthems  of  the  free. 
VOL.  XI.  169 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

It  took  all  our  past  national  distresses,  and  it  takes 
all  our  present  national  sorrows,  to  lift  up  our  nation 
on  that  high  career  where  it  will  march  long  after  the 
foreign  aristocracies  that  have  mocked  and  the  tyran- 
nies that  have  jeered  shall  be  swept  down  under  the 
Omnipotent  wrath  of  God,  who  hates  despotism,  and 
who,  by  the  strength  of  his  own  red  right  arm,  will 
make  all  men  free.  And  so  it  is  individually  and  in 
the  family  and  in  the  church  and  in  the  world,  that 
through  darkness  and  storm  and  trouble  men,  women, 
churches,  nations,  are  developed. 

Again:  I  see  in  my  text  the  beauty  of  unfaltering 
friendship.  I  suppose  there  were  plenty  of  friends 
for  Naomi  while  she  was  in  prosperity ;  but  of  all  her 
acquaintances,  how  many  were  willing  to  trudge  oflf 
with  her  toward  Judah,  when  she  had  to  make  that 
lonely  journey  ?  One  —  the  heroine  of  my  text. 
One  —  absolutely  one.  I  suppose  when  Naomi's 
husband  was  living,  and  they  had  plenty  of  money, 
and  all  things  went  well,  they  had  a  great  many  callers ; 
but  I  suppose  that  after  her  husband  died,  and  her 
property  went,  and  she  got  old  and  poor,  she  was  not 
troubled  very  much  with  callers.  All  the  birds  that 
sang  in  the  bower  while  the  sun  shone  have  gone  to 
their  nests,  now  the  night  has  fallen.  Oh,  these  beau- 
tiful sunflowers  that  spread  out  their  color  in  the 
morning  hour ;  but  they  are  always  asleep  when  the 
sun  is  going  down !  Job  had  plenty  of  friends  when 
he  was  the  richest  man  in  Uz ;  but  when  his  property 
went  and  the  trials  came,  then  there  were  none  so 
much  pestered  him  as  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  and 
Bildad  the  Shuhite,  and  Zophar  the  Naamathite.  Life 
often  seems  to  be  a  mere  game,  where  the  successful 
player  pulls  down  all  the  other  men  into  his  own 
lap.  Let  suspicions  arise  about  a  man's  character, 
and  he  becomes  like  a  bank  in  a  panic,  and  all  the 

170  VOL.  XI. 


The  Beautiful  Gleaner 

imputations  rush  on  him  and  break  down  in  a  day 
that  character  which  in  due  time  would  have  had 
strength  to  defend  itself.  There  are  reputations  that 
have  been  half  a  century  in  building,  which  go  down 
under  some  moral  exposure,  as  a  vast  temple  is  con- 
sumed by  the  touch  of  a  sulphurous  match.  A  hog 
can  uproot  a  century  plant. 

In  this  world,  so  full  of  heartlessness  and  hypoc- 
risy, how  thrilling  it  is  to  find  some  friend  as  faithful  in 
days  of  adversity  as  in  days  of  prosperity !  David  had 
such  a  friend  in  Hushai.  The  Jews  had  such  a  friend 
in  Mordecai,  who  never  forgot  their  cause.  Paul  had 
such  a  friend  in  Onesiphorus,  who  visited  him  in  jail. 
Christ  had  such  in  the  Marys,  who  adhered  to  him 
on  the  cross.  Naomi  had  such  a  one  in  Ruth,  who 
cried  out :  "  Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to  re- 
turn from  following  after  thee ;  for  whither  thou  goest, 
I  will  go;  and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God; 
where  thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried ; 
the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  aught  but 
death  part  thee  and  me." 

Again :  I  learn  from  this  subject  that  paths  which 
open  in  hardship  and  darkness  often  come  out  in 
places  of  joy.  When  Ruth  started  from  Moab  toward 
Jerusalem,  to  go  along  with  her  mother-in-law,  I  sup- 
pose the  people  said,  "  What  a  foolish  creature  to  go 
away  from  her  father's  house,  to  go  off  with  a  poor 
'old  woman  toward  the  land  of  Judah!  They  won't 
live  to  get  across  the  desert.  They  will  be  lost  in  the 
mountains,  or  the  jackals  of  the  wilderness  will  de- 
stroy them."  It  was  a  very  dark  morning  when  Ruth 
started  oflf  with  Naomi;  but  behold  her  in  my  text 
in  the  harvest-field  of  Boaz,  to  be  affianced  to  one  of 
the  lords  of  the  land,  and  become  one  of  the  grand- 
mothers of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory.  And  so 
VOL.  XI.  171 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

it  often  is  that  a  path  which  starts  very  darkly  ends 
very  brightly. 

When  you  started  out  for  heaven,  oh,  how  dark 
was  the  hour  of  conviction  —  how  Sinai  thundered, 
and  devils  tormented,  and  the  darkness  thickened! 
All  the  sins  of  your  life  pounced  upon  you,  and  it 
was  the  darkest  hour  you  ever  saw  when  you  first 
found  out  your  sins.  After  a  while  you  went  into 
the  harvest-field  of  God's  mercy ;  you  began  to  glean 
in  the  fields  of  divine  promise,  and  you  had  more 
sheaves  than  you  could  carry,  as  the  voice  of  God  ad- 
dressed you,  saying :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whose 
transgressions  are  forgiven  and  whose  sins  are  cov- 
ered." A  very  dark  starting  in  conviction,  a  very 
bright  ending  in  the  pardon  and  the  hope  and  the 
triumph  of  the  Gospel.  So,  very  often  in  our  worldly 
business  or  in  our  spiritual  career,  we  start  off  on  a 
very  dark  path.  We  must  go.  The  flesh  may  shrink 
back,  but  there  is  a  voice  within  or  a  voice  from 
above,  saying :  "  You  must  go,"  and  we  have  to 
drink  the  gall,  and  we  have  to  carry  the  cross,  and 
we  have  to  traverse  the  desert,  and  we  are  pounded 
and  flailed  of  misrepresentation  and  abuse,  and  we 
have  to  urge  our  way  through  ten  thousand  obstacles 
that  must  be  overcome  by  our  own  right  arm.  We 
have  to  ford  the  river,  we  have  to  climb  the  mountain, 
we  have  to  storm  the  castle ;  but  blessed  be  God,  the 
day  of  rest  and  reward  will  come.  On  the  top  of  the 
captured  battlements  we  will  shout  the  victory ;  if  not 
in  this  world,  then  in  that  world  where  there  is  no 
gall  to  drink,  no  burdens  to  carry,  no  battles  to  fight. 
How  do  I  know  it?  Know  it!  I  know  it  because 
God  says  so.  "  They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  them, 
nor  any  heat,  for  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of 
the  throne  shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  water, 
and  God  shall  wipe  all  tears  from  their  eyes." 

172  VOL.  XI. 


The  Beautiful  Gleaner 

It  was  very  hard  for  Noah  to  endure  the  scoffing 
of  the  people  in  his  day,  while  he  was  trying  to  build 
the  ark,  and  was  every  morning  quizzed  about  his  old 
boat  that  would  never  be  of  any  practical  use;  but 
when  the  deluge  came,  and  the  mountains  disappeared 
like  the  backs  of  sea-monsters,  and  the  elements, 
lashed  into  fury,  clapped  their  hands  over  a  drowned 
world,  then  Noah  in  the  ark  rejoiced  in  his  own  safety 
and  in  the  safety  of  his  family,  and  looked  out  on  the 
wreck  of  a  ruined  earth. 

Christ,  hounded  of  persecutors,  denied  a  pillow, 
worse  maltreated  than  the  thieves  on  either  side  of  the 
cross,  human  hate  smacking  its  lips  in  satisfaction 
after  it  had  been  draining  his  last  drop  of  blood,  the 
sheeted  dead  bursting  from  the  sepulchers  at  his 
crucifixion.  Tell  me,  O  Gethsemane  and  Golgotha, 
were  there  ever  darker  times  than  those?  Like  the 
booming  of  the  midnight  sea  against  the  rock,  the 
surges  of  Christ's  anguish  beat  against  the  gates  of 
eternity,  to  be  echoed  back  by  all  the  thrones  of 
heaven  and  all  the  dungeons  of  hell.  But  the  day  of 
reward  comes  for  Christ ;  all  the  pomp  and  dominion 
of  this  world  are  to  be  hung  on  his  throne,  crowned 
heads  are  to  bow  before  him  on  whose  head  are  many 
crowns,  and  all  celestial  worship  is  to  come  up  at  his 
feet,  Hke  the  humming  of  the  forest,  like  the  rushing 
of  the  waters,  like  the  thundering  of  the  seas,  while 
all  heaven,  rising  on  their  thrones,  beat  time  with  their 
scepters.  "  Hallelujah,  for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent 
reigneth!  Hallelujah,  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
have  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ!" 

That  song  of  love,  now  low  and  far, 
Ere  long  shall  swell  from  star  to  star; 
That  light,  the  breaking  day  which  tips 
The  golden-spired  Apocalypse. 
VOL.  XI.  173 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Again:  I  learn  from  my  subject  that  events  which 
seem  to  be  most  insignificant  may  be  momentous. 
Can  you  imagine  anything  more  unimportant  than 
the  coming  of  a  poor  woman  from  Moab  to  Judah? 
Can  you  imagine  anything  more  trivial  than  the  fact 
that  this  Ruth  just  happened  to  alight  —  as  they  say 
—  just  happened  to  alight  on  that  field  of  Boaz?  Yet 
all  ages,  all  generations,  have  an  interest  in  the  fact 
that  she  was  to  become  an  ancestor  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  all  nations  and  kingdoms  must  look  at 
that  one  little  incident  with  a  thrill  of  unspeakable 
and  eternal  satisfaction.  So  it  is  in  your  history  and 
in  mine ;  events  that  you  thought  of  no  importance  at 
all  have  been  of  very  great  moment.  That  casual  con- 
versation, that  accidental  meeting  —  you  did  not  think 
of  it  again  for  a  long  while ;  but  how  it  changed  all  the 
current  of  your  life !  It  seemed  to  be  of  no  importance 
that  Jubal  invented  rude  instruments  of  music,  call- 
ing them  harp  and  organ ;  but  they  were  the  introduc- 
tion of  all  the  world's  minstrelsy;  and  as  you  hear 
the  vibration  of  a  stringed  instrument,  even  after  the 
fingers  have  been  taken  away  from  it,  so  all  music 
now  of  lute  and  drum  and  cornet  are  only  the  long- 
continued  strains  of  Jubal's  harp  and  Jubal's  organ. 
It  seemed  to  be  a  matter  of  very  little  importance  that 
Tubal  Cain  learned  the  uses  of  copper  and  iron ;  but 
that  rude  foundry  of  ancient  days  has  its  echo  in  the 
rattle  of  Birmingham  machinery  and  the  roar  and 
bang  of  factories  on  the  Merrimac.  It  seemed  to  be 
a  matter  of  no  importance  that  Luther  found  a  Bible 
in  a  monastery ;  but  as  he  opened  that  Bible,  and  the 
brass-bound  lids  fell  back,  they  jarred  everything, 
from  the  Vatican  to  the  furthest  convent  in  Germany, 
and  the  rustling  of  the  wormed  leaves  was  the  sound 
of  the  wings  of  the  angel  of  the  Reformation.  So 
the  insignificant  events  of  this  world  seem,  after  all, 

174  VOL.  XI. 


The  Beautiful  Gleaner 

to  be  most  momentous.  The  fact  that  you  came  up 
that  street  or  this  street  seemed  to  be  of  no  im- 
portance to  you,  and  the  fact  that  you  went  inside  of 
some  church  may  seem  to  be  a  matter  of  very  great 
insignificance  to  you,  but  you  may  find  it  the  turning 
point  in  your  history. 

Again :  I  see  in  my  subject  an  illustration  of  the 
beauty  of  female  industry.  Behold  Ruth  toiling  in 
the  harvest-field  under  the  hot  sun,  or  at  noon  tak- 
ing plain  bread  with  the  reapers,  or  eating  the  parched 
corn  which  Boaz  handed  to  her.  The  customs  of  so- 
ciety, of  course,  have  changed,  and  without  the  hard- 
ships and  exposure  to  which  Ruth  was  subjected, 
every  intelligent  woman  will  find  something  to  do.  I 
know  there  is  a  sickly  sentimentality  on  this  subject. 
In  some  famiUes  there  are  persons  of  no  practical  ser- 
vice to  the  household  or  community;  and  though 
there  are  so  many  woes  all  around  about  them  in  the 
world,  they  spend  their  time  languishing  over  a  new 
pattern,  or  bursting  into  tears  at  midnight  over  the 
story  of  some  lover  who  shot  himself!  They  would 
not  deign  to  look  at  Ruth  carrying  back  the  barley 
on  her  way  home  to  her  mother-in-law,  Naomi.  All 
this  fastidiousness  may  seem  to  do  very  well  while 
they  are  under  the  shelter  of  their  father's  house ;  but 
when  the  sharp  winter  of  misfortune  comes,  what  of 
these  butterflies  ?  Persons  under  indulgent  parentage 
may  get  upon  themselves  habits  of  indolence;  but 
when  they  come  out  into  practical  life,  their  soul  will 
recoil  with  disgust  and  chagrin.  They  will  feel  in 
their  hearts  what  the  poet  so  severely  satirized  v/hen 
he  said: 

Folks  are  so  awkward,  things  so  impolite, 
They're  elegantly  pained  from  morn  till  night. 

Through  that  gate  of  indolence,  how  many  men 
and  women  have  marched,  useless  on  earth,  to  a  de- 
voL.  XI.  175 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

stroyed  eternity!  Spinola  said  to  Sir  Horace  Vere: 
"  Of  what  did  your  brother  die?  "  "  Of  having  noth- 
ing to  do,"  was  the  answer.  "  Ah !  "  said  Spinola, 
"that's  enough  to  kill  any  general  of  us."  Can  it 
be  possible  in  this  world,  where  there  is  so  much 
suffering  to  be  alleviated,  so  much  darkness  to  be  en- 
lightened, and  so  many  burdens  to  be  carried  that 
there  is  any  person  who  cannot  find  anything  to  do  ? 

Madame  de  Stael  did  a  world  of  work  in  her  time; 
and  one  day,  while  she  was  seated  amid  instruments  of 
music,  all  of  which  she  had  mastered,  and  amid  manu- 
script books,  which  she  had  written,  some  one  said  to 
her,  "  How  do  you  find  time  to  attend  to  all  these 
things  ?  "  "  Oh,"  she  replied,  "  these  are  not  the  things 
I  am  proud  of.  My  chief  boast  is  in  the  fact  that  I 
have  seventeen  trades,  by  any  one  of  which  I  could 
make  a  livelihood  if  necessary."  And  if  in  secular 
spheres  there  is  so  much  to  be  done,  in  spiritual  work 
how  vast  the  field!  How  many  dying  all  around 
about  us  without  one  word  of  comfort!  We  want 
more  Abigails,  more  Hannahs,  more  Rebeccas,  more 
Marys,  more  Deborahs  consecrated  —  body,  mind, 
soul  —  to  the  Lord  who  bought  them. 

Once  more  I  learn  from  my  subject  the  value  of 
gleaning.  Ruth  going  into  that  harvest-field  might 
have  said :  "  There  is  a  straw,  and  there  is  a  straw, 
but  what  is  a  straw?  I  can't  get  any  barley  for  my- 
self or  my  mother-in-law  out  of  these  separate 
straws."  Not  so  said  beautiful  Ruth.  She  gathered 
two  straws,  and  she  put  them  together,  and  more 
straws,  until  she  got  enough  to  make  a  sheaf.  Put- 
ting that  down,  she  went  and  gathered  more  straws, 
until  she  had  another  sheaf  and  another  and  another 
and  another,  and  then  she  brought  them  all  together, 
and  she  threshed  them  out,  and  she  had  an  ephah  of 

176  VOL.  XI. 


The  Beautiful  Gleaner 

barley,  nigh  a  bushel.     Oh,  that  we  might    all  be 
gleaners ! 

Elihu  Burritt  learned  many  things  while  toiling  in 
a  blacksmith's  shop.  Abercrombie,  the  world-re- 
nowned philosopher,  was  a  philosopher  in  Scotland, 
and  he  got  his  philosophy,  or  the  chief  part  of  it, 
while,  as  a  physician,  he  was  waiting  for  the  door  of 
the  sick-room  to  open.  Yet  how  many  there  are  in 
this  day  who  say  they  are  so  busy  they  have  no  time 
for  mental  or  spiritual  improvement ;  the  great  duties 
of  life  cross  the  field  like  strong  reapers,  and  carry  off 
all  the  hours,  and  there  is  only  here  and  there  a  frag- 
ment left,  that  is  not  worth  gleaning.  You  could  go 
into  the  busiest  day  and  busiest  week  of  your  life  and 
find  golden  opportunities,  which  gathered,  might  at 
last  make  a  whole  sheaf  for  the  Lord's  garner.  It  is 
the  stray  opportunities  and  the  stray  privileges  which, 
taken  up  and  bound  together  and  beaten  out,  will  at 
last  fill  you  with  rejoicing.  There  are  a  few  moments 
left  worth  the  gleaning.  Now,  Ruth,  to  the  field! 
May  each  one  have  a  measure  full  and  running  over ! 
Ho!  you  gleaners,  to  the  field!  And  if  there  be  in 
your  household  an  aged  one  or  a  sick  relative  that  is 
not  strong  enough  to  come  forth  and  toil  in  this  field, 
then  let  Ruth  take  home  to  feeble  Naomi  this  sheaf 
of  the  gleanings :  "  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth, 
bearing  precious  seed,  shall  doubtless  come  again 
with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him."  May 
the  Lord  God  of  Ruth  and  Naomi  be  our  portion  for- 
ever! 


VOL.  XI.  177 


THE  GRANDMOTHER 

II  Tim.,  i:  S:    "The  unfeigned  faith  that  is  in  thee,  which 
dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois." 


THE  GRANDMOTHER 

II  Tim.,  1:5:    "  The  unfeigned  faith  that  is  in  thee,  which 
dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois." 

In  this  affectionate  letter  which  Paul,  the  old  min- 
ister, is  writing  to  Timothy,  the  young  minister,  the 
family  record  is  brought  out.  Paul  practically  says: 
"  Timothy,  what  a  good  grandmother  you  had !  You 
ought  to  be  better  than  most  folks,  you  had  not  only 
a  good  mother,  but  a  good  grandmother.  Two  pre- 
ceding generations  of  piety  ought  to  give  you  a 
mighty  push  in  the  right  direction."  The  fact  was 
that  Timothy  needed  encouragement.  He  was  in 
poor  health,  having  a  weak  stomach,  and  was  dyspep- 
tic, and  Paul  prescribed  for  him  a  tonic,  "  a  little  wine, 
for  thy  stomach's  sake  "  —  not  much  wine,  but  a  lit- 
tle wine,  and  only  as  a  medicine.  And  if  the  wine 
then  had  been  as  much  adulterated  with  logwood  and 
strychnine  as  our  modern  wines,  he  would  not  have 
prescribed  any. 

But  Timothy,  not  strong  physically,  is  encouraged 
spiritually  by  the  recital  of  grandmotherly  excellence, 
Paul  hinting  to  him,  as  I  rvow  hint  to  you,  that  God 
sometimes  gathers  up,  as  in  a  reservoir  away  back  of 
the  active  generations  of  to-day,  a  godly  influence,  and 
then  in  response  to  prayer,  lets  down  the  power  upon 
children  and  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren. 
The  world  is  wofully  in  want  of  a  table  of  statistics 
in  regard  to  what  is  the  protractedness  and  immensity 
of  influence  of  one  good  woman  in  the  church  and 
world.  We  have  accounts  of  how  much  evil  has  been 
wrought  by  Margaret,  the  mother  of  criminals,  who 
VOL.  XI.  181 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

lived  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  of  how  many 
hundreds  of  criminals  her  descendants  furnished  for 
the  penitentiary  and  the  gallows,  and  how  many  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  dollars  they  cost  this  country 
in  their  arraignment  and  prison  support,  as  well  as 
in  the  property  they  burglarized  or  destroyed.  But 
will  not  some  one  with  brain  comprehensive  enough 
and  heart  warm  enough  and  pen  keen  enough  come 
out  and  give  us  the  facts  in  regard  to  some  good 
woman  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  let  us  know  how 
many  Christian  men  and  women  and  reformers  and 
useful  people  have  been  found  among  her  descend- 
ants, and  how  many  asylums  and  colleges  and 
churches  they  built,  and  how  many  millions  of  dol- 
lars they  contributed  for  humanitarian  and  Christian 
purposes  ?  The  good  women  whose  tombstones  were 
planted  in  the  eighteenth  century  are  more  alive  for 
good  in  the  nineteenth  century  than  they  were  before, 
as  the  good  women  of  this  nineteenth  century  will  be 
more  alive  for  good  in  the  twentieth  century  than 
now.  Mark  you,  I  have  no  idea  that  the  grand- 
mothers were  any  better  than  their  granddaughters. 
You  cannot  get  very  old  people  to  talk  much  about 
how  things  were  when  they  were  boys  and  girls.  They 
have  a  reticence  and  a  non-committaUsm  which  makes 
me  think  they  feel  themselves  to  be  the  custodians  of 
the  reputation  of  their  early  comrades.  While  our 
dear  old  folks  are  rehearsing  the  follies  of  the  present, 
if  you  put  them  on  the  witness-stand  and  cross-ex- 
amine them  as  to  how  things  were  seventy  years  ago, 
the  silence  becomes  oppressive, 

A  celebrated  Frenchman  by  the  name  of  Volney 
visited  this  country  in  1796,  and  he  says  of  woman's 
diet  in  those  times :  "  If  a  premium  was  offered  for 
a  regimen  most  destructive  to  health,  none  could  be 
devised  more  efficacious  for  these  ends  than  that  in 

182  VOL.  XI. 


The  Grandmother 

use  among  these  people."  That  ecUpses  our  lobster 
salad  at  midnight.  Everybody  talks  about  the  dis- 
sipations of  modern  society,  and  how  womanly  health 
goes  down  under  it,  but  it  was  worse  a  hundred  years 
ago,  for  the  chaplain  of  a  French  regiment  in  our 
Revolutionary  War  wrote  in  1782,  in  his  book  of 
American  women,  saying :  "  They  are  tall  and  well- 
proportioned,  their  features  are  generally  regular, 
their  complexions  are  generally  fair  and  without  color. 
At  twenty  years  of  age  the  women  have  no  longer 
the  freshness  of  youth.  At  thirty  or  forty  they  are 
decrepit."  In  1812  a  foreign  consul  wrote  a  book  en- 
titled, "  A  Sketch  of  the  United  States  at  the  Com- 
mencement of  the  Present  Century,"  and  he  says  of 
the  women  of  those  times,  "  At  the  age  of  thirty  all 
their  charms  have  disappeared."  One  glance  at  the 
portraits  of  the  women  a  hundred  years  ago  and  their 
style  of  dress  makes  us  wonder  how  they  ever  got 
their  breath.  All  this  makes  me  think  that  the  ex- 
press rail-train  is  no  more  an  improvement  on  the 
old  canal-boat,  or  the  telegraph  no  more  an  improve- 
ment on  the  old-time  saddlebags,  than  the  women  of 
our  day  are  an  improvement  on  the  women  of  the  last 
century. 

But,  notwithstanding  that  those  times  were  so 
much  worse  than  ours,  there  was  a  glorious  race  of 
godly  women  seventy  and  a  hundred  years  ago,  who 
held  the  world  back  from  sin  and  lifted  it  toward 
virtue,  and  without  their  exalted  and  sanctified  in- 
fluence the  last  good  influence  would  have  perished 
from  the  earth  before  this.  Indeed,  all  over  this  land 
there  are  seated  to-day  —  not  so  much  in  churches, 
for  many  of  them  are  too  feeble  to  come  —  a  great 
many  aged  grandmothers.  They  sometimes  feel  that 
the  world  has  gone  past  them,  and  they  have  an  idea 
that  they  are  of  little  account.  Their  head  sometimes 
VOL.  XI.  183 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

gets  aching  from  the  racket  of  the  grandchildren 
downstairs  or  in  the  next  room.  They  steady  them- 
selves by  the  banisters  as  they  go  up  and  down. 
When  they  get  a  cold,  it  hangs  on  to  them  longer 
than  it  used  to.  They  cannot  bear  to  have  the  grand- 
children punished  even  when  they  deserve  it,  and 
have  so  relaxed  their  ideas  of  family  discipline  that 
they  would  spoil  all  the  youngsters  of  the  household 
by  too  great  leniency.  These  old  folks  are  the  con- 
fidantes when  great  troubles  come,  and  there  is  a 
calming  and  soothing  power  in  the  touch  of  an  aged 
hand  that  is  almost  supernatural.  They  feel  they  are 
almost  through  with  the  journey  of  life,  and  read 
the  old  Book  more  than  they  used  to,  hardly  know- 
ing which  most  they  enjoy,  the  Old  Testament  or 
the  New,  and  often  stop  and  dwell  tearfully  over  the 
family  record  half  way  between.  We  hail  them  to- 
day, whether  in  the  house  of  God  or  at  the  home- 
stead. Blessed  is  that  household  that  has  in  it  a 
grandmother  Lois.  Where  she  is,  angels  are  hover- 
ing round,  and  God  is  in  the  room.  May  her  last 
days  be  like  those  lovely  autumnal  days  that  we  call 
Indian  Summer. 

I  never  knew  the  joy  of  having  a  grandmother; 
that  is  the  disadvantage  of  being  the  youngest  child 
of  the  family.  The  elder  members  only  have  that 
benediction.  But  though  she  went  up  out  of  this 
life  before  I  began  it,  I  have  heard  of  her  faith  in 
God,  that  brought  all  her  children  into  the  kingdom 
and  two  of  them  into  the  ministry,  and  then  brought 
all  her  grandchildren  into  the  kingdom,  myself  the 
last  and  least  worthy.  Is  it  not  time  that  you  and  I 
do  two  things,  swing  open  a  picture-gallery  of  the 
wrinkled  faces  and  stooped  shoulders  of  the  past,  and 
call  down  from  their  heavenly  thrones  the  godly 
grandmothers,  to  give  them  our  thanks,  and  then  per- 

184  VOL.  XI. 


The  Grandmother 

suade  the  mothers  of  to-day  that  they  are  living  for 
all  time,  and  that  against  the  sides  of  every  cradle  in 
which  a  child  is  rocked  beat  the  two  eternities.  Here 
we  have  an  untried,  undiscussed,  and  unexplored  sub- 
ject. You  often  hear  about  your  influence  upon  your 
own  children  —  I  am  not  talking  about  that.  What 
about  your  influence  upon  the  twentieth  century, 
upon  the  thirtieth  century,  upon  the  fortieth  century, 
upon  the  year  2000,  upon  the  year  4000,  if  the  world 
lasts  so  long?  The  world  stood  four  thousand 
years  before  Christ  came;  it  is  not  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  it  may  stand  four  thousand  years 
after  his  arrival.  Four  thousand  years  the  world 
swung  ofT  in  sin;  four  thousand  years  it  may  be 
swinging  back  into  righteousness.  By  the  ordinary 
rate  of  multiplication  of  the  world's  population  in  a 
century,  your  descendants  will  be  over  three  hundred, 
and  by  two  centuries  at  least  thirty  thousand,  and 
upon  every  one  of  them  you,  the  mother  of  to-day, 
will  have  an  influence  for  good  or  evil.  And  if  in 
four  centuries  your  descendants  shall  have  with  their 
names  filled  a  scroll  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  will 
some  angel  from  heaven  to  whom  is  given  the  capac- 
ity to  calculate  the  number  of  the  stars  of  heaven  and 
the  sands  of  the  seashore,  step  down  and  tell  us  how 
many  descendants  you  will  have  in  the  four  thou- 
sandth year  of  the  world's  possible  continuance  ? 

Do  not  let  the  grandmothers  any  longer  think 
that  they  are  retired,  and  sit  clear  back  out  of  sight 
from  the  world,  feeling  that  they  have  no  relation  to 
it.  The  mothers  of  the  last  century  are  to-day  in 
the  senates,  the  parliaments,  the  palaces,  the  pulpits, 
the  banking-houses,  the  professional  chairs,  the 
prisons,  the  almshouses,  the  company  of  midnight 
brigands,  the  cellars,  the  ditches  of  this  country.  You 
have  been  thinking  about  the  importance  of  having 
VOL.  XI.  185 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  right  influence  upon  one  nursery.  You  have  been 
thinking  about  the  importance  of  getting  those  two 
little  feet  on  the  right  path.  You  have  been  thinking 
of  your  child's  destiny  for  the  next  eighty  years,  if  it 
should  pass  on  to  be  an  octogenarian.  That  is  well, 
but  my  subject  sweeps  a  thousand  years,  a  million 
years,  a  quadrillion  of  years.  I  cannot  stop  at  one 
cradle;  I  am  looking  at  the  cradles  that  reach  all 
round  the  world  and  across  all  time.  I  am  not  talk- 
ing of  mother  Eunice ;  I  am  talking  of  grandmother 
Lois. 

The  only  way  you  can  tell  the  force  of  a  current  is 
by  sailing  up-stream;  or  the  force  of  an  ocean  wave, 
by  running  the  ship  against  it.  Running  along  with 
it  we  cannot  appreciate  the  force.  In  estimating 
maternal  influence  we  generally  run  along  with  it  down 
the  stream  of  time,  and  so  we  do  not  understand  the 
full  force.  Let  us  come  up  to  it  from  the  eternity  side, 
after  it  has  been  working  on  for  centuries,  and  see  all 
the  good  it  has  done  and  all  the  evil  it  has  accom- 
plished multiplied  in  magnificent  or  appalling  com- 
pound interest.  The  diflference  between  that  mothers 
influence  on  her  children  now,  and  the  influence  when 
it  has  been  multiplied  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
lives,  is  the  difference  between  the  Mississippi  river, 
way  up  at  the  top  of  the  continent,  starting  from  the 
little  Lake  Itasca,  seven  miles  long  and  one  wide,  and 
its  mouth  at  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where  navies  might 
ride.  Between  the  birth  of  that  river  and  its  burial  in 
the  sea,  the  Missouri  pours  in,  and  the  Ohio  pours  in, 
and  the  Arkansas  pours  in,  and  the  Red  and  White 
and  Yazoo  rivers  pour  in,  and  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories between  the  Alleghany  and  Rocky  mountains 
make  contribution.  Now,  in  order  to  test  the  power 
of  a  mother's  influence,  we  need  to  come  in  off  of  the 
ocean  of  eternity  and  sail  up  toward  the  one  cradle, 

i86  VOL.  XI. 


The  Grandmother 

and  we  find  ten  thousand  tributaries  of  influence  pour- 
ing in  and  pouring  down.  But  it  is,  after  all,  one  great 
river  of  power  rolling  on  and  rolling  forever.  Who 
can  fathom  it?  Who  can  bridge  it?  Who  can  stop 
it?  Had  not  mothers  better  be  intensifying  their  pray- 
ers? Had  they  not  better  be  elevating  by  their  exam- 
ple? Had  they  not  better  be  rousing  themselves  with 
the  consideration  that  by  their  faithfulness  or  neglect 
they  are  starting  an  influence  which  will  be  stupendous 
after  the  last  mountain  of  earth  is  flat,  and  the  last  sea 
has  been  dried  up,  and  the  last  flake  of  the  ashes  of  a 
consumed  world  shall  have  been  blown  away,  and  all 
the  telescopes  of  other  worlds,  directed  to  the  track 
around  which  our  world  once  swung,  shall  discover 
not  so  much  as  a  cinder  of  the  burned-down  and  swept- 
off  planet.  In  Ceylon  there  is  a  granite  column  thirty- 
six  feet  square  in  size,  which  is  thought,  by  the  natives, 
to  decide  the  world's  continuance.  An  angel  with  robe 
spun  from  zephyrs  is  once  a  century  to  descend  and 
sweep  the  hem  of  that  robe  across  the  granite,  and 
when,  by  that  attrition  the  column  is  worn  away,  they 
say  time  will  end.  But,  by  that  process,  that  granite 
column  would  be  worn  out  of  existence  before  a 
mother's  influence  will  begin  to  give  way. 

If  a  mother  tell  a  child  that  if  he  is  not  good,  some 
bugaboo  will  come  and  catch  him,  the  fear  excited 
may  make  the  child  a  coward,  and  the  fact  that  he 
finds  that  there  is  no  bugaboo  may  make  him  a  liar, 
and  the  echo  of  that  false  alarm  may  be  heard  after 
fifteen  generations  have  been  born  and  have  expired. 
If  a  mother  promise  a  child  a  reward  for  good  behav- 
ior, and  after  the  good  behavior  forgets  to  give  the 
reward,  the  cheat  may  crop  out  in  some  faithlessness 
half  a  thousand  years  further  on.  If  a  mother  cultivate 
a  child's  vanity,  and  eulogize  his  curls,  and  extol  the 
night-black  or  sky-blue  or  nut-brown  of  the  child's 
VOL.  XI.  187 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

eyes,  and  call  out  in  his  presence  the  admiration  of 
spectators,  pride  and  arrogance  may  be  prolonged  after 
half  a  dozen  family  records  have  been  obliterated.  If 
a  mother  express  doubt  about  some  statement  of  the 
Holy  Bible  in  a  child's  presence,  long  after  the  gates 
of  this  historical  era  have  closed  and  the  gates  of 
another  era  have  opened,  the  result  may  be  seen  in  a 
champion  blasphemer.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  a 
mother  walking  with  a  child  see  a  suffering  one  by 
the  wayside  and  says:  "  My  child,  g^ve  that  ten-cent 
piece  to  that  lame  boy,"  the  result  may  be  seen  on 
the  other  side  of  the  following  century  in  some  George 
Muller  building  a  whole  village  of  orphanages.  If  a 
mother  sit  almost  every  evening  by  the  trundle-bed  of 
a  child  and  teach  it  lessons  of  a  Saviour's  love  and  a 
Saviour's  example,  of  the  importance  of  truth  and  the 
horror  of  a  lie,  and  the  virtues  of  industry  and  kind- 
ness and  sympathy  and  self-sacrifice,  long  after  the 
mother  is  gone,  and  the  child  has  gone,  and  the  letter- 
ing on  both  the  tombstones  shall  have  been  washed 
out  by  the  storms  of  innumerable  winters,  there  may 
be  standing,  as  a  result  of  those  trundle-bed  lessons, 
flaming  evangels,  world-moving  reformers,  seraphic 
Summerfields,  weeping  Paysons,  thundering  White- 
fields,  emancipating  Washingtons. 

Good  or  bad  influence  may  skip  one  generation  or 
two  generations,  but  it  will  be  sure  to  land  in  the  third 
or  fourth  generation,  just  as  the  Ten  Commandments, 
speaking  of  the  visitation  of  God  on  families,  says 
nothing  about  the  second  generation, but  entirely  skips 
the  second  and  speaks  of  the  third  and  fourth  genera- 
tions :  "  Visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
third  and  fourth  generations  of  them  that  hate  me." 
Parental  influence,  right  and  wrong,  may  jump  over  a 
generation,  but  it  will  come  down  further  on,  as  sure 
as  you  sit  there  and  I  stand  here.    Timothy's  ministry 

i88  VOL.  XI. 


The  Grandmother 

was  projected  by  his  grandmother  Lois.  There  are 
men  and  women  here,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
Christian  church,  who  are  such  as  a  result  of  the  con- 
secration of  great-great-grandmothers.  Why,  who  do 
you  think  the  Lord  is?  You  talk  as  though  his  mem- 
ory was  weak.  He  can  no  easier  remember  a  prayer 
five  minutes  than  he  can  five  centuries. 

This  explains  what  we  often  see  —  some  man  or 
woman  distinguished  for  benevolence  when  the  father 
and  mother  were  distinguished  for  penuriousness;  or 
you  see  some  young  man  or  woman  with  a  bad  father 
and  a  hard  mother  come  out  gloriously  for  Christ,  and 
make  the  church  sob  and  shout  and  sing  under  their 
exhortations.  We  stand  in  corners  of  the  vestry  and 
whisper  over  the  matter  and  say:  "  How  is  this,  such 
great  piety  in  sons  and  daughters  of  such  parental 
worldliness  and  sin?  "  I  will  explain  it  to  you  if  you 
will  fetch  me  the  old  family  Bible  containing  the  full 
record.  Let  some  septuagenarian  look  with  me  upon 
the  pages  of  births  and  marriages,  and  tell  me  who 
that  woman  was  with  the  old-fashioned  name  of 
Jemima  or  Betsy  or  Mehitabel.  Ah,  there  .she  is,  the 
old  grandmother  or  great-grandmother,  who  had 
enough  religion  to  saturate  a  century.  There  she  is, 
the  dear  old  soul,  grandmother  Lois.  In  beautiful 
Greenwood  there  is  the  resting-place  of  George  W. 
Bethune,  once  a  minister  of  Brooklyn  Heights,  his 
name  never  spoken  among  intelligent  Americans  with- 
out suggesting  two  things  —  eloquence  and  evangel- 
ism. In  the  same  tomb  sleeps  his  grandmother,  Isa- 
bella Graham,  who  was  the  chief  inspiration  of  his 
ministry.  You  are  not  surprised  at  the  poetry  and 
pathos  and  pulpit  power  of  the  grandson  when  you 
read  of  the  faith  and  devotion  of  his  wonderful  ances- 
tress. When  you  read  this  grandmother's  letter,  in 
which  she  poured  out  her  widowed  soul  in  longpings 
VOL.  XI.  189 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

for  a  son's  salvation,  you  will  not  wonder  that  succeed- 
ing generations  have  been  blessed: 

New  York,  May  20,  1791. 

This  day  my  only  son  left  me  in  bitter  wringings  of  heart; 
he  is  again  launched  on  the  ocean,  God's  ocean.  The  Lord 
saved  him  from  shipwreck,  brought  him  to  my  home  and 
allowed  me  once  more  to  indulge  my  affections  over  him. 
He  has  been  with  me  but  a  short  time,  and  ill  have  I  im- 
proved it;  he  is  gone  from  my  sight,  and  my  heart  bursts 
with  tumultuous  grief.  Lord,  have  mercy  on  the  widow's 
son,  "  the  only  son  of  his  mother." 

I  ask  nothing  in  all  this  world  for  him;  I  repeat  my  peti- 
tion —  save  his  soul  alive,  give  him  salvation  from  sin.  It 
is  not  the  danger  of  the  seas  that  distresses  me;  it  is  not  the 
hardships  he  must  undergo;  it  is  not  the  dread  of  never  see- 
ing him  more  in  this  world;  it  is  because  I  cannot  discern 
the  fulfillment  of  the  promise  in  him,  I  cannot  discern  the 
new  birth  nor  its  fruit,  but  every  symptom  of  captivity  to 
Satan,  the  world  and  self-will.  This,  this  is  what  distresses 
me;  and  in  connection  with  this,  his  being  shut  out  from 
ordinances  at  a  distance  from  Christians;  shut  up  with  those 
who  forget  God,  profane  his  name  and  break  his  Sabbaths; 
men  who  often  live  and  die  like  beasts,  yet  are  accountable 
creatures,  who  must  answer  for  every  moment  of  time  and 
every  word,  thought  and  action. 

O,  Lord,  many  wonders  hast  thou  shown  me;  thy  ways 
of  dealing  with  me  and  mine  have  not  been  common  ones; 
add  this  wonder  to  the  rest.  Call,  convert,  regenerate  and 
establish  a  sailor  in  the  faith.  Lord,  all  things  are  possible 
with  thee;  glorify  thy  Son  and  extend  his  kingdom  by 
sea  and  land;  take  the  prey  from  the  strong.  I  roll  him 
over  upon  thee.  Many  friends  try  to  comfort  me;  miserable 
comforters  are  they  all.  Thou  art  the  God  of  consolation; 
only  confirm  to  me  thy  precious  word,  on  which  thou 
causedst  me  to  hope  in  the  day  when  thou  saidst  to  me, 
"  Leave  thy  fatherless  children,  I  will  preserve  them  alive." 
Only  let  this  life  be  a  spiritual  life,  and  I  put  a  blank  in 
thy  hand    as  to  all  temporal  things. 

I  wait  for  thy  salvation.     Amen. 

With  such  a  grandmother  would  you  not  Have  a 
right  to  expect  a  George  W.  Bethune?  and  all  the 

190  VOL.    XI. 


The  Grandmother 

thousands  converted  through  his  ministry  may  date 
the  saving  power  back  to  Isabella  Graham. 

God  fill  the  earth  and  heavens  with  such  grand- 
mothers; we  must  some  day  go  up  and  thank  these 
dear  old  souls.  Surely,  God  will  let  us  go  up  and  tell 
them  of  the  results  of  their  influence.  Among  our 
first  questions  in  heaven  will  be,  "  Where  is  grand- 
mother? "  They  will  point  her  out,  for  we  would 
hardly  know  her  even  if  we  had  seen  her  on  earth,  so 
bent  over  with  years  once,  and  there  so  straight,  so 
dim  of  eye  through  the  blinding  of  earthly  tears,  and 
now  her  eye  as  clear  as  heaven,  so  full  of  aches  and 
pains  once,  and  now  so  agile  with  celestial  health,  the 
wrinkles  blooming  into  carnation  roses,  and  her  step 
like  the  roe  on  the  mountains.  Yes,  I  must  see  her,  my 
grandmother  on  my  father's  side,  Mary  McCoy,  de- 
scendant of  the  Scotch.  When  I  first  spoke  to  an 
audience  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  and  felt  somewhat  dif- 
fident, being  a  stranger,  I  began  by  telling  them  that 
my  grandmother  was  a  Scotchwoman,  and  then  went 
up  a  shout  of  welcome  which  made  me  feel  as  easy  as 
I  do  here.  I  must  see  her.  You  must  see  these  women 
of  the  early  nineteenth  century  and  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  answer  of  whose  prayers  is  in  your 
welfare  to-day. 

God  bless  all  the  aged  women  up  and  down  the 
land  and  in  all  lands!  What  a  happy  thing,  Pompo- 
nius  Atticus,  to  say,  when  making  the  funeral  address 
of  his  mother:  "  Though  I  have  resided  with  her 
sixty-seven  years,  I  was  never  once  reconciled  to  her, 
because  there  never  happened  the  least  discord  be- 
tween us,  and  consequently,  there  was  no  need  of 
reconciliation."  Make  it  as  easy  for  the  old  folks  as 
you  can.  When  they  are  sick,  get  for  them  the  best 
doctors.  Give  them  your  arm  when  the  streets  are 
slippery.    Stay  with  them  all  the  time  you  can.    Go 

VOL.  XI.  191 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

home  and  see  the  old  folks.  Find  the  place  for  them 
in  the  hymn-book.  Never  be  ashamed  if  they  prefer 
styles  of  apparel  a  little  antiquated.  Never  say  any- 
thing that  implies  that  they  are  in  the  way.  Make  the 
road  for  the  last  mile  as  smooth  as  you  can.  How 
you  will  miss  her  when  she  is  gone.  I  would  give  the 
house  from  over  my  head  to  see  my  mother.  I  have 
so  many  things  I  would  like  to  tell  her,  things  that 
have  happened  in  all  these  years  since  she  vvent  away. 
Morning,  noon  and  night  let  us  thank  God  for  the 
good  influences  that  have  come  down  from  good 
mothers  all  the  way  back.  Timothy,  do  not  forget 
your  mother  Eunice,  and  do  not  forget  your  grand- 
mother Lois.  And  hand  down  to  others  this  patri- 
mony of  blessing.  Pass  along  the  coronets.  Make 
religion  an  heirloom  from  generation  to  generation. 
Mothers  of  America,  consecrate  yourselves  to  God, 
and  you  will  help  consecrate  all  the  ages  follow- 
ing! Do  not  dwell  so  much  on  your  hardships  that 
you  miss  your  chance  of  wielding  an  influence  that 
shall  look  down  upon  you  from  the  towers  of  an  end- 
less future. 

This  is  a  hard  world  for  women.  Aye,  I  go  further 
and  say,  it  is  a  hard  world  for  men.  But  for  all  women 
and  men  who  trust  their  bodies  and  souls  in  the  hand 
of  Christ,  the  shining  gates  will  soon  swing  open.  Do 
you  not  see  the  sickly  pallor  on  the  sky?  That  is  the 
pallor  on  the  cold  cheek  of  the  dying  night.  Do  ycu 
not  see  the  brightening  of  the  clouds?  That  is  the 
flush  on  the  warm  forehead  of  the  morning.  Cheer 
up,  you  are  coming  within  sight  of  the  Celestial  City. 

Cairo,  capital  of  Egypt,  was  called  "  City  of  Vic- 
tory." Athens,  capital  of  Greece,  was  called  "  City 
of  the  Violet  Crown";  Baalbeck  was  called  "  City  of 
the  Sun  " ;  London  was  called  "  The  City  of  Masts." 
Lucia's  imaginary  metropolis  beyond  the  Zodiac  was 

192  VOL.  XI. 


The  Grandmother 

called  "  The  City  of  Lanterns."  But  the  city  to  which 
you  journey  hath  all  these  in  one,  the  victory,  the 
crowns,  the  masts  of  those  that  have  been  harbored 
after  the  storm.  Aye,  all  but  the  lanterns  and  the  sun, 
because  they  have  no  need  of  any  other  light,  since 
the  Lamb  is  the  light  thireof. 


VCL.  Xt.  .  153 


THE  OLD  FOLKS'  VISIT 

Gen,,  45:  28:    "  I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die.' 


THE  OLD  FOLKS'  VISIT 

Gen.,  45:  28:    "I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die." 

Jacob  had  long  since  passed  the  hundred  year  mile- 
stone. In  those  times  people  were  distinguished  for 
longevity.  In  the  centuries  after  persons  lived  to 
great  age.  Galen,  the  most  celebrated  physician  of  his 
time,  took  so  little  of  his  own  medicine  that  he  lived 
to  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  A  man  of  undoubted 
veracity  on  the  witness-stand  in  England  swore  that 
he  remembered  an  event  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before.  Lord  Bacon  speaks  of  a  countess  who  had  cut 
three  sets  of  teeth,  and  died  at  one  hundred  and  forty 
years.  Joseph  Crele,  of  Pennsylvania,  lived  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years.  In  1857  a  book  was  printed  con- 
taining the  names  of  thirty-seven  persons  who  lived 
one  hundred  and  forty  years,  and  the  names  of  eleven 
persons  who  lived  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Among  the  grand  old  people  of  whom  we  have 
record  was  Jacob,  the  shepherd  of  the  text.  But  he 
had  a  bad  lot  of  boys.  They  were  jealous  and  am- 
bitious and  every  way  unprincipled.  Joseph,  however, 
seemed  to  be  an  exception;  but  he  had  been  gone 
many  years,  and  the  probability  was  that  he  was  dead. 
As  sometimes  now  in  a  house  you  will  find  kept  at  the 
table  a  vacant  chair,  a  plate,  a  knife,  a  fork,  for  some 
deceased  member  of  the  family,  so  Jacob  kept  in  his 
heart  a  place  for  his  beloved  Joseph.  There  sits  the 
old  man,  the  flock  of  one  hundred  and  forty  years  in 
their  flight  having  alighted  long  enough  to  leave  the 
marks  of  their  claw  on  forehead  and  cheek  and  temple. 
His  long  beard  snows  down  over  his  chest.  His  eyes 
VOL.  XI.  197 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

are  somewhat  dim,  and  he  can  see  further  when  they 
are  closed  than  when  they  are  open,  for  he  can  see 
clear  back  into  the  time  when  beautiful  Rachel,  his 
wife,  was  living,  and  his  children  shook  the  Oriental 
abode  with  their  merriment. 

The  centenarian  is  sitting  dreaming  over  the  past 
when  he  hears  a  wagon  rumbling  to  the  front  door. 
He  gets  up  and  goes  to  the  door  to  see  who  has  ar- 
rived, and  his  long  absent  sons  from  Egypt  come  in 
and  announce  to  him  that  Joseph  instead  of  being 
dead  is  living  in  an  Egyptian  palace,  with  all  the  in- 
vestiture of  prime  minister,  next  to  the  king  in  the 
mightiest  empire  of  all  the  world!  The  news  was  too 
sudden  and  too  glad  for  the  old  man,  and  his  cheeks 
whiten,  and  he  has  a  dazed  look,  and  his  staflf  falls 
out  of  his  hand,  and  he  would  have  dropped  had  not 
the  sons  caught  him  and  led  him  to  a  lounge  and  put 
cold  water  on  his  face,  and  fanned  him  a  little. 

In  that  half  delirium  the  old  man  mumbles  some- 
thing about  his  son,  Joseph.  He  says:  "  You  don't 
mean  Joseph,  do  you?  my  dear  son  who  has  been  dead 
so  long.  You  don't  mean  Joseph,  do  you?"  But 
after  they  had  fully  resuscitated  him,  and  the  news  was 
confirmed,  the  tears  begin  the  winding  way  down  the 
cross  roads  of  the  wrinkles,  and  the  sunken  lips  of  the 
old  man  quiver,  and  he  brings  his  bent  fingers  together 
as  he  says :  "  Joseph  is  yet  alive.  I  will  go  and  see 
him  before  I  die." 

It  did  not  take  the  old  man  a  great  while  to  get 
ready,  I  warrant  you.  He  put  on  the  best  clothes 
that  the  shepherd's  wardrobe  could  afford.  He  got 
into  the  wagon,  and  though  the  aged  are  cautious  and 
like  to  ride  slow,  the  wagon  did  not  get  along  fast 
enough  for  this  old  man;  and  when  the  wagon  with 
the  old  man  met  Joseph's  chariot  coming  down  to 
meet  him,  and  Joseph  got  out  of  the  chariot  and  got 

198  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Folks*  Visit 

into  the  wagon  and  threw  his  arms  around  his  father's 
neck,  it  was  an  antithesis  of  royalty  and  rusticity,  of 
simplicity  and  pomp,  of  filial  affection  and  paternal 
love,  which  leaves  us  so  much  in  doubt  about  whether 
we  had  better  laugh  or  cry,  that  we  do  both.  So 
Jacob  kept  the  resolution  of  the  text:  "  I  will  go  and 
see  him  before  I  die."  And  if  our  friends,  the  report- 
ers, would  like  to  have  an  appropriate  title  for  this 
sermon,  they  might  call  it  "  The  Old  Folks'  Visit." 

What  a  strong  and  unfailing  thing  is  parental  at- 
tachment !  Was  it  not  almost  time  for  Jacob  to  forget 
Joseph?  The  hot  suns  of  many  summers  had  blazed 
on  the  heath;  the  river  Nile  had  overflowed  and 
receded,  overflowed  and  receded  again  and  again; 
the  seed  had  been  sown  and  the  harvests  reaped; 
stars  rose  and  set;  years  of  plenty  and  years  of 
famine  had  passed  on;  but  the  love  of  Jacob 
for  Joseph  in  my  text  is  overwhelmingly  dra- 
matic. Oh,  that  is  a  cord  that  is  not  snapped, 
though  pulled  on  by  many  decades!  Though  when 
the  little  child  expired  the  parents  may  not  have  been 
more  than  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  now  they  are 
seventy-five,  yet  the  vision  of  the  cradle,  and  the  childr 
ish  face,  and  the  first  utterances  of  the  infantile  lips  are 
fresh  to-day,  in  spite  of  the  passage  of  a  half  century. 
Joseph  was  as  fresh  in  Jacob's  memory  as  ever,  though 
at  seventeen  years  of  age  the  boy  had  disappeared  from 
the  old  homestead.  I  found  in  our  family  record  the 
story  of  an  infant  that  had  died  fifty  years  before,  and 
I  said  to  my  parents :  "  What  is  this  record,  and  what 
does  it  mean?  "  Their  chief  answer  was  a  long,  deep 
sigh.  It  was  yet  to  them  a  very  tender  sorrow. 
What  does  that  all  mean?  Why,  it  means  our  chil- 
dren departed  are  ours  yet,  and  that  cord  of  attach- 
ment reaching  across  the  years  will  hold  us  until  it 
brings  us  together  in  the  palace,  as  Jacob  and  Joseph 
VOL.  XI.  199 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

were  brought  together.  That  is  one  thing  that  makes 
old  people  die  happy.  They  realize  it  is  reunion  with 
those  from  whom  they  have  long  been  separated. 

I  am  often  asked  as  pastor  —  and  every  pastor  is 
asked  the  question  — "  Will  my  children  be  children 
in  heaven  and  forever  children?"  Well,  there  was 
no  doubt  a  great  change  in  Joseph  from  the  time  Jacob 
lost  him,  and  the  time  when  Jacob  found  him  —  be- 
tween the  boy  seventeen  years  of  age  and  the  man  in 
mid-life,  his  forehead  developed  with  a  great  business 
estate;  but  Jacob  was  glad  to  get  back  Joseph  anyhow, 
and  it  did  not  make  much  difference  to  the  old  man 
whether  the  boy  looked  older  or  looked  younger. 
And  it  will  be  enough  joy  for  that  parent  if  he  can  get 
back  that  son,  that  daughter,  at  the  gate  of  heaven, 
whether  the  departed  loved  one  shall  come  a  cherub 
or  in  full-grown  angelhood.  There  must  be  a  change 
wrought  by  that  celestial  climate  and  by  those  su- 
pernal years,  but  it  will  only  be  from  loveliness  to  more 
loveliness,  and  from  health  to  more  radiant  health.  O 
parent,  as  you  think  of  the  darling  panting  and  white 
in  membranous  croup,  I  want  you  to  know  it  will  be 
gloriously  bettered  in  that  land  where  there  has  never 
been  a  death  and  where  all  the  inhabitants  will  Hve  on 
in  the  great  future  as  long  as  God!  Joseph  was  Jo- 
seph notwithstanding  the  palace,  and  your  child  will 
be  your  child  notwithstanding  all  the  raining  splen- 
dors of  everlasting  noon. 

What  a  thrilling  visit  was  that  of  the  old  shepherd 
to  the  prime  minister,  Joseph!  I  see  the  old  country- 
man seated  in  the  palace  looking  around  at  the  mir- 
rors and  the  fountains  and  the  carved  pillars,  and  oh! 
how  he  wishes  that  Rachel,  his  wife,  was  alive  and  she 
could  have  come  there  with  him  to  see  their  son  in  his 
great  house.  "  Oh,"  says  the  old  man  within  himself, 
"  I  do  wish  Rachel  could  be  here  to  see  all  this!  "     I 

200  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Folks'  Visit 

visited  at  the  farmhouse  of  the  father  of  Millard  Fill- 
more when  the  son  was  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  octogenarian  farmer  entertained  me  until 
eleven  o'clock  at  night  telling  me  what  great  things 
he  saw  in  his  son's  house  at  Washington,  and  how 
grandly  Millard  treated  him  in  the  White  House.  The 
old  man's  face  was  illumined  with  the  story  until  al- 
most midnight.  He  had  just  been  visiting  his  son  at 
the  Capital.  And  I  suppose  it  was  something  of  the 
same  joy  that  thrilled  the  heart  of  the  old  shepherd  as 
he  stood  in  the  palace  of  the  prime  minister.  It  is  a 
great  day  with  you  when  your  old  parents  come  to 
visit  you.  Your  little  children  stand  around  with 
great,  wide-open  eyes,  wondering  how  anybody  could 
be  so  old.  The  parents  cannot  stay  many  days,  for 
they  are  a  little  restless,  and  especially  at  nightfall, 
because  they  sleep  better  in  their  own  bed;  but  while 
they  tarry  you  somehow  feel  there  is  a  benediction  in 
every  room  in  the  house.  They  are  a  little  feeble,  and 
you  make  it  as  easy  as  you  can  for  them,  and  you 
realize  they  will  probably  not  visit  you  very  often  — 
perhaps  never  again.  You  go  to  their  room  after  they 
have  retired  at  night  to  see  if  the  lights  are  properly 
put  out,  for  the  old  people  understand  candle  and 
lamp  better  than  the  modern  apparatus  for  illumina- 
tion. In  the  morning,  with  real  interest  in  their  health, 
you  ask  them  how  they  rested  last  night.  Joseph  in 
the  historical  scene  of  the  text  did  not  think  any  more 
of  his  father  than  you  do  of  your  parents.  The  proba- 
bility is.  before  they  leave  your  house  they  half  spoil 
your  children  with  kindnesses.  Grandfather  and 
grandmother  are  more  lenient  and  indulgent  to  your 
children  than  they  ever  were  with  you.  And  what 
wonders  of  revelation  in  the  bombasine  pocket  of  the 
one  and  the  sleeve  of  the  other! 

Blessed  is  that  home  where  Christian  parents  come 
VOL.  XI.  aoi 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

to  visit!  Whatever  may  have  been  the  style  of  the 
architecture  when  they  came,  it  is  a  palace  before  they 
leave.  If  they  visit  you  fifty  times,  the  two  most  mem- 
orable visits  will  be  the  first  and  the  last.  Those  two 
pictures  will  hang  in  the  hall  of  your  memory  while 
memory  lasts,  and  you  will  remember  just  how  they 
looked,  and  where  they  sat,  and  what  they  said,  and 
at  what  figure  of  the  carpet,  and  at  what  doorsill  they 
parted  from  you,  giving  you  the  final  good-by.  Do 
not  be  embarrassed  if  your  father  come  to  town  and 
he  have  the  manners  of  the  shepherd,  and  if  your 
mother  come  to  town  and  there  be  in  her  hat  no  sign 
of  costly  millinery.  The  wife  of  Emperor  Theodosius 
said  a  wise  thing  when  she  said:  "  Husband,  remem- 
ber what  you  lately  were,  and  remember  what  you  are, 
and  be  thankful." 

By  this  time  you  all  notice  what  kindly  provision 
Joseph  made  for  his  father,  Jacob.  Joseph  did  not 
say:  "  I  can't  have  the  old  man  around  this  place. 
How  clumsy  he  would  look  climbing  up  these  marble 
stairs  and  walking  over  those  mosaics!  Then,  he 
would  be  putting  his  hands  upon  some  of  these  fres- 
coes. People  would  wonder  where  that  old  greenhorn 
came  from.  He  would  shock  all  the  Egyptian  court 
with  his  manners  at  table.  Besides  that,  he  might  get 
sick  on  my  hands,  and  he  might  be  querulous,  and  he 
might  talk  to  me  as  though  I  were  only  a  boy,  when 
I  am  the  second  man  in  all  the  realm.  Of  course,  he 
must  not  suffer,  and  if  there  is  famine  in  his  country  — 
and  I  hear  there  is  —  I  will  send  him  some  provisions; 
but  I  can't  take  a  man  from  Padan-aram  and  introduce 
him  into  this  polite  Egyptian  court.  What  a  nuisance 
it  is  have  poor  relations!  "  Joseph  did  not  say  that, 
but  he  rushed  out  to  meet  his  father  with  perfect  aban- 
don of  affection  and  brought  him  up  to  the  palace,  and 
introduced  him  to  the  Emperor,  and  provided  for  all 

202  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Folks'  Visit 

the  rest  of  the  father's  days,  and  nothing  was  too  good 
for  the  old  man  while  living;  and  when  he  was  dead, 
Joseph,  with  military  escort,  took  his  father's  remains 
to  the  family  cemetery  at  Machpelah  and  put  them 
down  beside  Leah,  his  wife.  Would  God  all  children 
were  as  kind  to  their  parents ! 

If  the  father  have  large  property,  and  he  be  wise 
enough  to  keep  it  in  his  own  name,  he  will  be  respected 
by  the  heirs ;  but  how  often  it  is  when  the  son  finds  his 
father  in  famine,  as  Joseph  found  Jacob  in  famine,  the 
young  people  make  it  very  hard  for  the  old  man. 
They  are  so  surprised  he  eats  with  a  knife  instead  of 
a  fork.  They  are  chagrined  at  his  antediluvian  habits. 
They  are  provoked  because  he  cannot  hear  as  well  as 
he  used  to,  and  when  he  asks  it  over  again,  and  the 
son  has  to  repeat  it,  he  bawls  in  the  old  man's  ear: 
"  I  hope  you  hear  that!  "  How  long  he  must  wear 
the  old  coat  or  the  old  hat  before  they  get  him  a  new 
one!  How  chagrined  they  are  at  his  independence  of 
the  English  grammar!  How  long  he  hangs  on! 
Seventy  years  and  not  gone  yet!  Seventy-five  years 
and  not  gone  yet!  Eighty  years  and  not  gone  yet! 
Will  he  ever  go?  They  think  it  of  no  use  to  have  a 
doctor  in  his  last  sickness,  and  go  up  to  the  drugstore 
and  get  a  dose  of  something  that  makes  him  worse, 
and  economize  on  a  coffin,  and  beat  the  undertaker 
down  to  the  last  point,  giving  a  note  for  the  reduced 
amount,  which  they  never  pay!  I  have  officiated  at 
obsequies  of  aged  people  where  the  family  have  been 
so  inordinately  resigned  to  Providence  that  I  felt 
like  taking  my  text  from  Proverbs :  "  The  eye  that 
mocketh  at  its  father,  and  refuseth  to  obey  its  mother, 
the  ravens  of  the  valley  shall  pick  it  out,  and  the 
young  eagles  shall  eat  it."  In  other  words,  such  an 
ingrate  ought  to  have  a  flock  of  crows  for  pall-bearers ! 
I  congratulate  you  if  you  have  the  honor  of  providing 
VOL.  XI.  203 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

for  aged  parents.  The  blessing  of  the  Lord  God  of 
Joseph  and  Jacob  will  be  on  you. 

I  rejoice  to  remember  that  though  my  father  lived 
in  a  plain  house  the  most  of  his  days,  he  died  in  a 
mansion  provided  by  the  filial  piety  of  a  son  who  had 
achieved  a  fortune.  There  the  octogenarian  sat,  and 
the  servants  waited  on  him,  and  there  were  plenty  of 
horses  and  plenty  of  carriages  to  convey  him,  and  a 
bower  in  which  to  sit  on  long  summer  afternoons, 
dreaming  over  the  past,  and  there  was  not  a  room  in 
the  house  where  he  was  not  welcome,  and  there  were 
musical  instruments  of  all  sorts  to  regale  him;  and 
when  life  had  passed,  the  neighbors  came  out  and  ex- 
pressed all  honor  possible,  and  carried  him  to  the  vil- 
lage Machpelah  and  put  him  down  beside  the  Rachel 
with  whom  he  had  lived  more  than  half  a  century. 
Share  your  successes  with  the  old  people.  The  prob- 
ability is,  that  the  principles  they  inculcated  achieved 
your  fortune.  Give  them  a  Christian  percentage  of 
kindly  consideration.  Let  Joseph  divide  with  Jacob 
the  pasture  fields  of  Goshen,  and  the  glories  of  the 
Egyptian  court. 

And  here  I  would  like  to  sing  the  praises  of  the 
sisterhood  who  remained  unmarried  that  they  might 
administer  to  aged  parents.  The  brutal  world  calls 
these  self-sacrificing  ones  by  ungallant  names,  and  says 
they  are  peculiar  or  angular;  but  if  you  had  had  as 
many  annoyances  as  they  have  had,  Xanthippe  would 
have  been  an  angel  compared  with  you.  It  is  easier  to 
take  care  of  five  rollicking,  romping  children  than 
one  childish  old  man.  Among  the  best  women  of  these 
cities  are  those  who  allowed  the  bloom  of  life  to  pass 
away  while  they  were  caring  for  their  parents.  While 
other  maidens  were  sound  asleep,  they  were  bathing 
the  old  man's  feet,  or  tucking  up  the  covers  around 
the  invalid  mother.    While  other  maidens  were  in  the 

204  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Folks'  Visit 

cotillon,  they  were  dancing  attendance  upon  rheuma- 
tism and  spreading  plasters  for  the  lame  back  of  the 
septenarian,  and  heating  catnip  tea  for  insomnia.  In 
almost  every  circle  of  our  kindred  there  has  been  some 
queen  of  self-sacrifice  to  whom  jeweled  hand  was 
offered  in  marriage,  but  who  stayed  on  the  old  place 
because  of  the  sense  of  filial  obligation,  until  the  health 
was  gone  and  the  attractiveness  of  personal  presence 
had  vanished.  Brutal  society  may  call  such  an  one 
by  a  nickname;  God  calls  her  daughter,  and  Heaven 
calls  her  saint,  and  I  call  her  domestic  martyr.  A 
half-dozen  ordinary  women  have  not  as  much  nobility 
as  could  be  found  in  the  smallest  joint  of  the  little  fin- 
ger of  her  left  hand.  Although  the  world  has  stood 
six  thousand  years,  this  is  the  first  apotheosis  of 
maidenhood,  although  in  the  long  line  of  those  who 
have  declined  marriage  that  they  might  be  qualified 
for  some  special  mission  are  the  names  of  Anna  Ross 
and  Margaret  Breckinridge  and  Mary  Shelton  and 
Anna  Etheridge  and  Georgiana  Willetts  the  angels 
of  the  battle-fields  of  Fair  Oaks  and  Lookout  Moun-' 
tain  and  Chancellorsville  and  Cooper  Shop  Hospital; 
and  though  single  life  has  been  honored  by  the  fact 
that  the  three  grandest  men  of  the  Bible  —  John  and 
Paul  and  Christ — were  celibates. 

Let  the  ungrateful  world  sneer  at  the  maiden  aunt, 
but  God  has  a  throne  burnished  for  her  arrival,  and 
on  one  side  of  that  throne  in  Heaven  there  is  a  vase 
containing  two  jewels,  the  one  brighter  than  the 
Kohinoor  of  London  Tower,  and  the  other  larger  than 
any  diamond  ever  found  in  the  districts  of  Golconda 
—  the  one  jewel  by  the  lapidary  of  the  palace  cut  with 
the  words:  "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  father;"  the 
other  jewel  by  the  lapidary  of  the  palace  cut  with  the 
words:  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  mother."  "  Over 
the  hills  to  the  poorhouse  "  is  the  exquisite  ballad  of 
VOL.  XI.  205 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Will  Carleton,  who  found  an  old  woman  who  had  been 
turned  off  by  her  prosperous  sons;  but  I  thank  God  I 
may  find  in  my  text  "  Over  the  hills  to  the  palace." 

As  if  to  disgust  us  with  unfilial  conduct,  the  Bible 
presents  us  the  story  of  Micah,  who  stole  the  eleven 
hundred  shekels  from  his  mother,  and  the  story  of 
Absalom,  who  tried  to  dethrone  his  father.  But  all 
history  is  beautiful  with  stories  of  filial  fidelity. 
Epaminondas,  the  warrior,  found  his  chief  delight  in 
reciting  to  his  parents  his  victories.  There  goes 
.ffineas  from  burning  Troy,  on  his  shoulders  Anchises, 
his  father.  The  Athenians  punished  with  death  any 
unfilial  conduct.  There  goes  beautiful  Ruth  escorting 
venerable  Naomi  across  the  desert  amid  the  howling 
of  the  wolves  and  the  barking  of  the  jackals.  John 
Lawrence,  burned  at  the  stake  in  Colchester,  was 
cheered  in  the  flames  by  his  children,  who  said:  "  O 
God,  strengthen  thy  servant  and  keep  thy  promise!" 
And  Christ  in  the  hour  of  excruciation  provided  for 
his  old  mother.  Jacob  kept  his  resolution,  *'  I  will 
go  and  see  him  before  I  die,"  and  a  little  while  after 
we  find  them  walking  the  tessellated  floor  of  the  palace, 
Jacob  and  Joseph,  the  prime  minister  proud  of  the 
shepherd. 

I  may  say  in  regard  to  the  most  of  you  that  your 
parents  have  probably  visited  you  for  the  last  time,  or 
will  soon  pay  you  such  a  visit,  and  I  have  wondered 
if  they  will  ever  visit  you  in  the  King's  palace.  "  Oh," 
you  say,  "  I  am  in  the  pit  of  sin !  "  Joseph  was  in  the 
pit.  "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  I  am  in  the  prison  of  mine 
iniquity!"  Joseph  was  once  in  prison.  "Oh,"  you 
say,  "  I  didn't  have  a  fair  chance;  I  was  denied  mater- 
nal kindness ! "  Joseph  was  denied  maternal  attend- 
ance. "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  I  am  far  away  from  the  land 
of  my  nativity!  "  Joseph  was  far  from  home.  "  Oh," 
you  say,  "I  have  been  betrayed  and  exasperated!" 

206  VOL.  XI. 


The  Old  Folks'  Visit 

Did  not  Joseph's  brethren  sell  him  to  a  passing  Ish- 
maelitish  caravan?  Yet  God  brought  him  to  that 
emblazoned  residence;  and  if  you  will  trust  his  grace 
in  Jesus  Christ  you,  too,  will  be  empalaced.  Oh, 
what  a  day  that  will  be  when  the  old  folks  come  from 
an  adjoining  mansion  in  heaven,  and  find  you  amid 
the  alabaster  pillars  of  the  throne-room  and  living 
with  the  King!  They  are  coming  up  the  steps  now, 
and  the  epauletted  guard  of  the  palace  rushes  in  and 
says:  "Your  father's  coming,  your  mother's  com- 
ing! "  And  when  under  the  arches  of  precious  stones 
and  on  the  pavement  of  porphyry  you  greet  each  other, 
the  scene  will  eclipse  the  meeting  on  the  Goshen  high- 
way, when  Joseph  and  Jacob  fell  on  each  other's  neck 
and  wept  a  good  while. 

But  oh,  how  changed  the  old  folks  will  be!  Their 
cheek  smoothed  into  the  flesh  of  a  little  child.  Their 
stooped  posture  lifted  into  immortal  symmetry.  Their 
foot  now  so  feeble,  then  with  the  sprightliness  of  a 
bounding  roe  as  they  shall  say  to  you :  "  A  spirit 
passed  this  way  from  earth  and  told  us  that  you  were 
wayward  and  dissipated  after  we  left  the  world;  but 
you  have  repented,  our  prayer  has  been  answered, 
and  you  are  here ;  and  as  we  used  to  visit  you  on  earth 
before  we  died,  now  we  visit  you  in  your  new  home 
after  our  ascension."  And  father  will  say,  "  Mother, 
don't  you  see  Joseph  is  yet  alive?  "  and  mother  will 
say,  "  Yes,  father,  Joseph  is  yet  alive."  And  then  they 
will  talk  over  their  earthly  anxieties  in  regard  to  you, 
and  the  midnight  supplications  in  your  behalf,  and 
they  will  recite  to  each  other  the  old  Scripture  pas- 
sage with  which  they  used  to  cheer  their  staggering 
faith :  "  I  will  be  a  God  to  thee  and  thy  seed  after 
thee."  Oh,  the  palace,  the  palace,  the  palace!  That 
is  what  Richard  Baxter  called  "  The  Saint's  Ever- 
lasting Rest."  That  is  what  John  Bunyan  called  the 
VOL.  XI.  207 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

"  Celestial  City."  That  is  Young's  "  Night  Thoughts  " 
turned  into  morning  exultations.  That  is  Gray's 
"  Elegy  in  a  Churchyard "  turned  to  resurrection 
spectacle.  That  is  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday  Night " 
exchanged  for  the  cotter's  Sabbath  morning.  That 
is  the  shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plains  amid  the  flocks  on 
the  hills  of  heaven.  That  is  the  famine-struck  Padan- 
aram  turned  into  the  rich  pasture  fields  of  Goshen. 
That  is  Jacob  visiting  Joseph  at  the  emerald  castle. 


J08  VOL.  XI. 


MARTYRS  OF  THE  NEEDLE 

Matt.,  19:  24:    "  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle." 


MARTYRS  OF  THE  NEEDLE 

Matt.,  19:  24:    "It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle." 

Whether  this  "eye  of  the  needle"  be  the  small 
g-ate  at  the  side  of  the  big  gate  at  the  entrance  of  the 
wall  of  the  ancient  city,  as  is  generally  interpreted,  or 
the  eye  of  a  needle  such  as  is  now  handled  in  sewing 
a  garment,  I  do  not  say.  In  either  case  it  would  be 
a  tight  thing  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a 
needle.  But  there  are  whole  caravans  of  fatigues 
and  hardships  going  through  the  eye  of  the  sewing- 
woman's  needle. 

Very  long  ago  the  needle  was  busy.  It  was  con- 
sidered honorable  for  women  to  ply  it  in  olden  time. 
Alexander  the  Great  stood  in  his  palace  showing  gar- 
ments made  by  his  own  mother.  The  finest  tapestries 
at  Bayeux  were  made  by  the  Queen  of  William  the 
Conqueror.  Augustus,  the  Emperor,  would  not  wear 
any  garments  except  those  that  were  fashioned  by 
some  member  of  his  royal  family.  So  let  the  needle- 
woman be  respected! 

The  greatest  blessing  that  could  have  happened 
to  our  first  parents  was  being  turned  out  of  Eden 
after  they  had  done  wrong.  Adam  and  Eve,  in  their 
perfect  state,  might  have  got  along  without  work, 
or  only  such  slight  employment  as  a  perfect  garden, 
with  no  weeds  in  it,  demanded.  But,  as  soon  as  they 
had  sinned,  the  best  thing  for  them  was  to  be  turned 
out  where  they  would  have  to  work.  We  know  what 
a  debilitating  thing  it  is  for  a  man  to  have  nothing  to 
do.     Good  old  Ashbel   Green,   at   fourscore   years, 

VOL.  XI,  21 1 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmagc 

when  asked  why  he  kept  on  working,  said :  "I  do  so  to 
keep  out  of  mischief,"  We  see  that  a  man  who  has 
a  large  amount  of  money  to  start  with  has  no  chance. 
Of  the  thousand  prosperous  and  honorable  men  that 
you  know,  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  had  to  work 
vigorously  at  the  beginning. 

But  I  am  now  to  tell  you  that  industry  is  just  as 
important  for  a  woman's  safety  and  happiness.  The 
most  unhappy  women  in  our  communities  to-day  are 
those  who  have  no  engagements  to  call  them  up  in 
the  morning ;  who,  once  having  risen  and  breakfasted, 
lounge  through  the  dull  forenoon  in  slippers  down  at 
the  heel,  and  with  disheveled  hair,  reading  the  latest 
novel ;  and  who,  having  dragged  through  a  wretched 
forenoon  and  taken  their  afternoon  sleep;  and  having 
spent  an  hour  and  a  half  at  their  toilet,  pick  up  their 
card-case  and  go  out  to  make  calls ;  and  who  pass  their 
evenings  waiting  for  somebody  to  come  in  and  break 
up  the  monotony.  Arabella  Stuart  never  was  im- 
prisoned in  so  dark  a  dungeon  as  that. 

There  is  no  happiness  for  an  idle  woman.  It  may 
be  with  hand,  it  may  be  with  brain,  it  may  be  with 
foot ;  but  work  she  must,  or  be  wretched  forever.  The 
little  girls  of  our  families  must  be  started  with  that 
idea.  The  curse  of  our  American  society  is  that  our 
young  women  are  taught  that  the  first,  second,  third, 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  tenth,  fiftieth,  thousandth 
thing  in  their  life  is  to  get  somebody  to  take  care  of 
them.  Instead  of  that  the  first  lesson  should  be,  how 
under  God,  they  may  take  care  of  themselves.  The 
simple  fact  is  that  a  majority  of  them  do  have 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that,  too,  after 
having,  through  the  false  notions  of  their  parents, 
wasted  the  years  in  which  they  ought  to  have 
learned  how  successfully  to  maintain  themselves. 
We    now    and    here    declare    the    inhumanity,    cru- 

212  VOL.  XI, 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

elty  and  outrage  of  that  father  and  mother  who 
pass  their  daughters  into  womanhood,  having  g^ven 
them  no  faciHty  for  earning  their  HveUhood.  Madame 
de  Stael  said:  "It  is  not  these  writings  that  I  am  proud 
of,  but  the  fact  that  I  have  faciUty  in  ten  occupations, 
in  any  one  of  which  I  could  make  a  HveHhood." 

You  say  you  have  a  fortune  to  leave  them.  O 
man  and  woman !  have  you  not  learned  that,  like  vul- 
tures, like  hawks,  like  eagles,  riches  have  wings  and 
fly  away?  Though  you  should  be  successful  in  leav- 
ing a  competency  behind  you,  the  trickery  of  execu- 
tors may  swamp  it  in  a  night ;  or  some  elders  or  dea- 
cons of  our  churches  may  get  up  a  fraudulent  com- 
pany, and  induce  your  orphans  to  put  their  money  into 
it,  and  if  it  be  lost,  prove  to  them  that  it  was  eternally 
decreed  that  that  was  the  way  they  were  to  lose  it,  and 
that  it  went  in  the  most  orthodox  and  heavenly  style. 
Oh,  the  damnable  schemes  that  professing  Christians 
will  engage  in — until  God  puts  his  fingers  on  the  col- 
lar of  the  hypocrite's  robe  and  rips  it  clear  down  to 
the  bottom!  You  have  no  right,  because  you  are 
well  oflf,  to  conclude  that  your  children  are  going  to 
be  as  well  off.  A  man  died,  leaving  a  large  fortune. 
His  son  fell  dead  in  a  Philadelphia  grog-shop.  His 
old  comrades  came  in  and  said,  as  they  bent  over  his 
corpse,  "What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Boggsey?" 
The  surgeon  standing  over  him  said:  "Hush  up!  he 
is  dead !"  "Ah,  he  is  dead !"  they  said.  "Come,  boys, 
let  us  go  and  take  a  drink  in  memory  of  poor  Bogg- 
sey!" 

Have  you  nothing  better  than  money  to  leave  your 
children?  If  you  have  not,  and  send  your  daughters 
into  the  world  with  empty  brain  and  unskilled  hand, 
you  are  guilty  of  assassination,  homicide,  regicide, 
infanticide.  There  are  women  toiling  in  our  cities  for 
three  and  four  dollars  per  week  who  were  the  daugh- 
voL.  XI.  213 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ters  of  merchant  princes.  These  suffering  ones  now 
would  be  glad  to  have  the  crumbs  that  once  fell  from 
their  father's  table.  That  worn-out,  broken  shoe 
that  she  wears  is  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  twelve- 
dollar  gaiters  in  which  her  mother  walked;  and  that 
torn  and  faded  calico  had  ancestry  of  magnificent  bro- 
cade, that  swept  Broadway  clean  without  any  expense 
to  the  street  commissioners.  Though  you  live  in  an 
elegant  residence,  and  fare  sumptuously  every  day, 
let  your  daughters  feel  it  is  a  disgrace  to  them  not 
to  know  how  to  work.  I  denounce  the  idea,  prevalent 
in  society,  that  though  our  young  women  may  em- 
broider slippers  and  crochet  and  make  mats  for 
lamps  to  stand  on,  without  disgrace,  the  idea  of  doing 
anything  for  a  livelihood  is  dishonorable.  It  is  a 
shame  for  a  young  woman,  belonging  to  a  large 
family,  to  be  inefficient  when  the  father  toils  his  life 
away  for  her  support.  It  is  a  shame  for  a  daughter  to 
be  idle  while  her  mother  toils  at  the  washtub.  It  is  as 
honorable  to  sweep  house,  make  beds,  or  trim  hats, 
as  it  is  to  twist  a  watch-chain. 

As  far  as  I  can  understand,  the  line  of  respectabil- 
ity, as  it  is  drawn  by  society,  lies  between  that  which 
is  useful  and  that  which  is  useless.  If  women  do  that 
which  is  of  no  value,  their  work  is  honorable.  If 
they  do  practical  work,  it  is  dishonorable.  That  our 
young  women  may  escape  the  censure  of  doing  dis- 
honorable work,  I  shall  particularize.  You  may  knit 
a  tidy  for  the  back  of  an  arm  chair,  but  by  no  means 
make  the  money  wherewith  to  buy  the  chair.  You 
may,  with  delicate  brush,  beautify  a  mantel  ornament, 
but  die  rather  than  earn  enough  to  buy  a  marble 
mantel.  You  may  learn  artistic  music  until  you  can 
squall  Italian,  but  never  sing  "Ortonville"  or  "Old 
Hundred."  Do  nothing  practical,  if  you  would,  in 
the  eyes  of  some  realms  of  society,  preserve  your  re- 

314  VOL.  XI, 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

spectability.  I  scout  these  finical  notions.  I  tell  you 
no  woman,  any  more  than  a  man,  has  a  right  to 
occupy  a  place  in  this  world  unless  she  pays  a  rent 
for  it. 

In  the  course  of  a  lifetime  you  consume  whole 
harvests  and  droves  of  cattle,  and  every  day  you  live 
breathe  forty  hogsheads  of  good  pure  air.  You  must, 
by  some  kind  of  usefulness,  pay  for  all  this.  Our  race 
was  the  last  thing  created — the  birds  and  the  fishes  on 
the  fourth  day,  the  cattle  and  lizards  on  the  fifth  day, 
and  man  on  the  sixth  day.  If  geologists  are  right,  the 
earth  was  a  million  of  years  in  the  possession  of  the 
insects,  beasts  and  birds,  before  our  race  came  upon  it. 
In  one  sense,  we  were  intruders.  The  cattle,  the  liz- 
ards and  the  hawks  had  pre-emption  right.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  what  we  are  to  do  with  the  lizards  and  sum- 
mer insects,  but  what  the  lizards  and  summer  insects 
are  to  do  with  us. 

If  we  want  a  place  in  this  world  we  must  earn  it. 
The  partridge  makes  its  own  nest  before  it  occupies 
it.  The  lark,  by  its  morning  song,  earns  its  breakfast 
before  it  eats  it ;  the  Bible  gives  an  intimation  that  the 
first  duty  of  an  idler  is  to  starve,  when  it  says  if  he 
"will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat."  Idleness  ruins 
the  health ;  and  very  soon  Nature  says :  "This  man 
has  refused  to  pay  his  rent ;  out  with  him !" 

Society  is  to  be  reconstructed  on  the  subject  of 
woman's  toil.  A  vast  majority  of  those  who  would 
have  woman  industrious  shut  her  up  to  a  few  kinds  of 
work.  My  judgment  in  this  matter  is,  that  a  woman 
has  a  right  to  do  anything  she  can  do  well.  There 
should  be  no  department  of  merchandise,  mechanism, 
art,  or  science  barred  against  her.  If  Miss  Hosmer 
has  genius  for  sculpture,  give  her  a  chisel.  If  Rosa 
Bonheur  has  a  fondness  for  delineating  animals,  let 
her  make  "The  Horse  Fair."  If  Miss  Mitchell  wjll 
VOL.  XI.  215 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

study  astronomy,  let  her  mount  the  starry  ladder.  If 
Lydia  will  be  a  merchant,  let  her  sell  purple.  If  Lu- 
cretia  Mott  will  preach  the  Gospel,  let  her  thrill  with 
her  womanly  eloquence  the  audience  in  the  Quaker 
meeting-house. 

It  is  said,  if  woman  be  given  such  opportunities, 
she  will  occupy  places  that  might  be  taken  by  men. 
I  say,  if  she  have  more  skill  and  capacity  for  any  po- 
sition than  a  man  has,  let  her  have  it!  She  has  as 
much  right  to  her  bread,  to  her  apparel,  and  to  her 
home,  as  men  have. 

But  it  is  said  that  her  nature  is  so  delicate  that 
she  is  unfitted  for  exhausting  toil.  I  ask  in  the  name 
of  all  past  history,  what  toil  on  earth  is  more  severe, 
exhausting,  and  tremendous  than  that  toil  of  the 
needle,  to  which,  for  ages,  she  has  been  subjected? 
The  battering-ram,  the  sword,  the  carbine,  the  battle- 
ax  have  made  no  such  havoc  as  the  needle.  I  would 
that  these  living  sepulchers  in  which  women  have  for 
ages  been  buried  might  be  opened,  and  that  some 
resurrection  trumpet  might  bring  up  these  living 
corpses  to  the  fresh  air  and  sunlight. 

Go  with  me,  and  I  will  show  you  a  woman  who, 
by  hardest  toil,  supports  her  children,  her  drunken 
husband,  her  old  father  and  mother,  pays  her  house- 
rent,  always  has  wholesome  food  on  the  table,  and, 
when  she  can  get  some  neighbor  on  the  Sabbath  to 
come  in  and  take  care  of  her  family,  appears  in  church, 
with  hat  and  cloak  that  are  far  from  indicating  the  toil 
to  which  she  is  subjected.  Such  a  woman  as  that  has 
body  and  soul  enough  to  fit  her  for  any  position.  She 
could  stand  beside  the  majority  of  your  salesmen  and 
dispose  of  more  goods.  She  could  go  into  your  wheel- 
wright shops  and  beat  one-half  your  workmen  at  mak- 
ing carriages.  We  talk  about  woman  as  though  we 
had  resigned  to  her  all  the  light  work,  and  ourselves 

216  VOL.  XI. 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

had  shouldered  the  heavier.  But  the  day  of  judgf- 
ment,  which  will  reveal  the  sufferings  of  the  stake  and 
inquisition,  will  marshal  before  the  throne  of  God  and 
the  hierarchs  of  heaven  the  martyrs  of  wash-tub  and 
needle.  Now,  I  say,  if  there  be  any  preference  in  oc- 
cupation, let  woman  have  it.  God  knows  her  trials 
are  the  severer.  By  her  acuter  sensitiveness  to  mis- 
fortune, by  her  hour  of  anguish,  I  demand  that  no 
one  hedge  up  her  pathway  to  a  livelihood.  Oh,  the 
meanness,  the  despicability  of  men  who  begrudge  a 
woman  the  right  to  work  anywhere,  in  any  honorable 
calling ! 

I  go  still  further,  and  say  that  women  should  have 
equal  compensation  with  men.  By  what  principle  of 
justice  is  it  that  women  in  many  of  our  cities  get  only 
two-thirds  as  much  pay  as  men,  and  in  many  cases 
only  half?  Here  is  the  gigantic  injustice — that  for 
work  equally  well,  if  not  better  done,  woman  receives 
far  less  compensation  than  man.  Start  with  the  Na- 
tional Government :  for  a  long  while  women  clerks  in 
Washington  got  nine  hundred  dollars  for  doing  that 
for  which  men  received  eighteen  hundred.  To  thou- 
sands of  young  women  in  our  cities  to-day  there  is 
only  this  alternative:  starvation  or  dishonor.  Many 
of  the  largest  mercantile  establishments  of  our  cities 
are  accessory  to  these  abominations;  and  from  their 
large  establishments  there  are  scores  of  souls  being 
pitched  off  into  death;  and  their  employers  know  it! 
Is  there  a  God?  Will  there  be  a  judgment?  I  tell 
you,  if  God  rises  up  to  redress  woman's  wrongs,  many 
of  our  large  establishments  will  be  swallowed  up 
quicker  than  a  South  American  earthquake  ever  took 
down  a  city.  God  will  catch  these  oppressors  between 
the  two  millstones  of  his  wrath,  and  grind  them  to 
powder !  I  hear  from  all  this  land  the  wail  of  woman- 
hood. Man  has  nothing  to  answer  to  that  wail  but 
VOL.  XI.  217 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

flatteries.  He  says  she  is  an  angel.  She  is  not.  She 
knows  she  is  not.  She  is  a  human  being,  who  gets 
hungry  when  she  has  no  food,  and  cold  when  she  has 
nor  fire.    Give  her  no  more  flatteries ;  give  her  justice ! 

There  are  about  fifty  thousand  sewing-girls  in  New 
York  and  Brooklyn.  Across  the  darkness  of  the  night 
I  hear  their  death-groan.  It  is  not  such  a  cry  as  comes 
from  those  who  are  suddenly  hurled  out  of  life,  but  a 
slow,  grinding,  horrible  wasting  away.  Gather  them 
before  you  and  look  into  their  faces,  pinched,  ghastly, 
hunger-struck !  Look  at  their  fingers,  needle-pricked 
and  blood-tipped!  See  that  premature  stoop  in  the 
shoulders !  Hear  that  dry,  hacking,  merciless  cough ! 
At  a  large  meeting  of  these  women,  held  in  a  hall  in 
Philadelphia,  grand  speeches  were  delivered,  but  a 
needlewoman  took  the  stand,  threw  aside  her  faded 
shawl,  and  with  her  shriveled  arm,  hurled  a  very 
thunderbolt  of  eloquence,  speaking  out  the  horrors  of 
her  own  experience. 

Stand  at  the  corner  of  a  street  in  New  York  in 
the  very  early  morning,  as  the  women  go  to  their 
work.  Many  of  them  had  no  breakfast  except  the 
crumbs  that  were  left  over  from  the  night  before,  or 
a  crust  they  chew  on  their  way  through  the  street. 
Here  they  come !  the  working  girls  of  the  city !  These 
engaged  in  bead-work,  these  in  flower-making,  in 
miUinery,  enamehng,  cigar-making,  book-binding, 
labeling,  feather-picking,  print-coloring,  paper-box 
making;  but,  most  overworked  of  all,  the  least  com- 
pensated, the  sewing-women.  Why  do  they  not  take 
the  city  cars  on  their  way  up?  They  cannot  afiford 
the  five  cents!  If,  concluding  to  deny  herself  some-^ 
thing  else,  she  gets  into  the  car,  give  her  a  seat !  You 
want  to  see  how  Latimer  and  Ridley  appeared  in  the 
fire,  look  at  that  woman  and  behold  a  more  horrible 
piartyrdom,  a  hotter  fire,  a  more  agonizing  death ! 

pi8  yoL.  XI. 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

One  Sabbath  night,  in  the  vestibule  of  my  church, 
after  service,  a  woman  fell  in  convulsions.  The  doctor 
said  she  needed  medicine  not  so  much  as  something 
to  eat.  As  she  began  to  revive,  in  her  delirium,  she 
said,  gaspingly:  "Eight  cents!  Eight  cents!  Eight 
cents !  I  wish  I  could  get  it  done !  I  am  so  tired !  I 
wish  I  could  get  some  sleep,  but  I  must  get  it  donef 
Eight  cents !  Eight  cents !"  We  found  afterwards 
that  she  was  making  garments  at  eight  cents  apiece, 
and  that  she  could  make  but  three  of  them  in  a  day. 
Hear  itl  Three  times  eight  are  twenty-four!  Hear 
it,  men  and  women  who  have  comfortable  homes ! 

Some  of  the  worst  villains  of  the  city  are  the  em- 
ployers of  these  women.  They  beat  them  down  to  the 
last  penny,  and  try  to  cheat  them  out  of  that.  The 
woman  must  deposit  a  dollar  or  two  before  she  gets 
the  garments  to  work  on.  When  the  work  is  done  it 
is  sharply  inspected,  the  most  insignificant  flaw  picked 
out,  and  the  wages  refused,  and  sometimes  the  dollar 
deposited  not  given  back.  The  Women's  Protective 
Union  reports  a  case  where  one  of  these  poor  souls, 
finding  a  place  where  she  could  get  more  wages,  re- 
solved to  change  employers,  and  went  to  get  her  pay 
for  work  done.  The  employer  says :  "I  hear  you  are 
going  to  leave  me?"  "Yes,"  she  said,  "and  I  have 
come  to  get  what  you  owe  me."  He  made  no  answer. 
She  said:  "Are  you  not  going  to  pay  me?"  "Yes," 
he  said,  "I  will  pay  you ;"  and  he  kicked  her  down  the 
stairs. 

How  are  these  evils  to  be  eradicated  ?  What  have 
you  to  answer,  you  who  sell  coats,  and  have  shoes 
made,  and  contract  for  the  Southern  and  Western 
markets  ?  What  help  is  there,  what  panacea,  what  re- 
demption? Some  say:  "Give  women  the  ballot." 
What  effect  such  ballot  might  have  on  other  questions 
I  am  not  here  to  discuss;  but  what  would  be  the  ef- 
voL,  XI.  219 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

feet  of  female  suffrage  upon  woman's  wages?  I  do 
not  believe  that  woman  will  ever  get  justice  by 
woman's  ballot.  Indeed,  women  oppress  women  as 
much  as  men  do.  Do  not  women,  as  much  as  men, 
beat  down  to  the  lowest  figure  the  woman  who  sews 
for  them  ?  Are  not  women  as  sharp  as  men  on  wash- 
erwomen, and  milliners,  and  mantua-makers  ?  If  a 
woman  asks  a  dollar  for  her  work,  does  not  her  fe- 
male employer  ask  her  if  she  will  not  take  ninety 
cents?  You  say  "only  ten  cents  difference;"  but  that 
is  sometimes  the  difference  between  heaven  and  hell. 
Women  often  have  less  commiseration  for  women 
than  men.  If  a  woman  steps  aside  from  the  path  of 
virtue,  man  may  forgive — woman  never!  Woman 
will  never  get  justice  done  her  from  woman's  ballot. 
Never  did  she  get  it  from  man's  ballot.  How,  then? 
God  will  rise  up  for  her.  God  has  more  resources 
than  we  know  of.  The  flaming  sword  that  hung  at 
Eden's  gate  when  woman  was  driven  out  will  cleave 
with  its  terrible  edge  her  oppressors. 

But  there  is  something  for  our  women  to  do.  Let 
our  young  people  prepare  to  excel  in  spheres  of  work, 
and  they  will  be  able,  after  a  while,  to  get  larger 
wages.  If  it  be  shown  that  a  woman  can,  in  a  store, 
sell  more  goods  in  a  year  than  a  man,  she  will  soon 
be  able  not  only  to  ask  but  to  demand  more  wages, 
and  to  demand  them  successfully.  Unskilled  and  in- 
competent labor  must  take  what  is  given ;  skilled  and 
competent  labor  will  eventually  make  its  own  stand- 
ard. Admitting  that  the  law  of  supply  and  demand 
regulates  these  things,  I  contend  that  the  demand  for 
skilled  labor  is  very  great,  and  the  supply  very  small. 

Start  with  the  idea  that  work  is  honorable,  and 
that  you  can  do  some  one  thing  better  than  any  one 
else.  Resolve  that,  God  helping,  you  will  take  care 
of  yourself.    If  you  are,  after  a  while,  called  into  an- 

220  VOL.  XI. 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

other  relation  you  will  all  the  better  be  qualified  for  it 
by  your  spirit  of  self-reliance ;  or  if  you  are  called  to 
stay  as  you  are,  you  can  be  happy  and  self-supporting. 
Poets  are  fond  of  talking  about  man  as  an  oak,  and 
woman  the  vine  that  climbs  it;  but  I  have  seen  many 
a  tree  fall  that  not  only  went  down  itself,  but  took  all 
the  vines  with  it.  I  can  tell  you  of  something  stronger 
than  an  oak  for  an  ivy  to  climb  on,  and  that  is  the 
throne  of  the  great  Jehovah.  Single  or  affianced,  that 
woman  is  strong  who  leans  on  God  and  does  her  best. 
The  needle  may  break ;  the  factory-band  may  slip ;  the 
wages  may  fail ;  but  over  every  good  woman's  head 
there  are  spread  the  two  great,  gentle,  stupendous 
wings  of  the  Almighty. 

Many  of  you  will  go  single-handed  through  life, 
and  you  will  have  to  choose  between  two  characters. 
Young  woman,  I  am  sure  you  will  turn  your  back 
upon  the  useless,  giggling,  painted  nonentity  which 
society  ignominiously  acknowledges  to  be  a  woman, 
and  ask  God  to  make  you  an  humble,  active,  earnest 
Christian.  What  will  become  of  this  godless  disciple 
of  fashion?  What  an  insult  to  her  sex!  Her  man- 
ners are  an  outrage  upon  decency.  She  is  more 
thoughtful  of  the  attitude  she  strikes  upon  the  carpet 
than  how  she  will  look  in  the  Judgment;  more  wor- 
ried about  her  freckles  than  her  sins ;  more  interested 
in  her  bonnet-strings  than  in  her  redemption.  Her 
apparel  is  the  poorest  part  of  a  Christian  woman,  how- 
ever magnificently  dressed,  and  no  one  has  so  much 
right  to  dress  well  as  a  Christian.  Not  so  with  the 
godless  disciple  of  fashion.  Take  her  robes,  and  you 
take  everything.  Death  will  come  down  on  her  some 
day,  and  rub  the  bistre  off  her  eyelids,  and  the  rouge 
off  her  cheeks,  and  with  two  rough,  bony  hands,  scat- 
ter spangles  and  glass  beads  and  rings  and  ribbons 

VOL.  XI,  221 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmagc 

and  lace  and  brooches   and  buckles   and  sashes   and 
frisettes   and  golden  clasps. 

The  dying  actress  whose  life  had  been  vicious  said : 
"The  scene  closes.  Draw  the  curtain."  Generally  the 
tragedy  comes  first,  the  farce  afterward;  but  in  her 
life  it  was  first  the  farce  of  a  useless  life,  and  then  the 
tragedy  of  a  wretched  eternity.  Compare  the  life  and 
death  of  such  an  one  with  that  of  some  Christian  aunt 
that  was  once  a  blessing  to  your  household.  I  do  not 
know  that  she  was  ever  offered  a  hand  in  marriage. 
She  lived  single,  that  untrammelled  she  might  be 
everybody's  blessing.  Whenever  the  sick  were  to  be 
visited,  or  the  poor  to  be  provided  with  bread,  she 
went  with  a  blessing.  She  could  pray,  or  sing  "Rock 
of  Ages,"  for  any  sick  pauper  who  asked  her.  As  she 
got  older,  there  were  days  when  she  was  a  little  sharp, 
but  for  the  most  part  Auntie  was  a  sunbeam — ^just  the 
one  for  Christmas  eve.  She  knew  better  than  any  one 
else  how  to  fix  things.  Her  every  prayer,  as  God 
heard  it,  was  full  of  everybody  who  had  trouble.  The 
brightest  things  in  all  the  house  dropped  from  her  fin- 
gers. She  had  peculiar  notions,  but  the  grandest  no- 
tion she  ever  had  was  to  make  you  happy.  She  dressed 
well — Auntie  always  dressed  well ;  but  her  highest 
adornment  was  that  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,  which, 
in  the  sight  of  God,  is  of  great  price.  When  old 
Auntie  died,  you  all  gathered  lovingly  about  her ;  and 
as  you  carried  her  out  to  rest,  the  Sunday  school  class 
almost  covered  the  coffin  with  japonicas ;  and  the  poor 
people  stood  at  the  end  of  the  alley,  with  their  aprons 
to  their  eyes,  sobbing  bitterly ;  and  the  man  of  the 
world  said,  with  Solomon:  "Her  price  was  above 
rubies ;"  and  Jesus,  as  unto  the  maiden  in  Judea,  com- 
manded :    "I  say  unto  thee,  arise !" 

222  VOL.  XI. 


THE  SHEIK'S  DAUGHTER 

Exodus,  3:  i:     "Now  Moses  kept  the  flock  of  Jethro,  his 
father-in-law,  the  priest  of  Midian." 


THE  SHEIK'S  DAUGHTER 

Exodus,  3:  i:     "Now  Moses  kept  the  flock  of  Jethro,  his 
father-in-law,  the  priest  of  Midian." 

In  the  southeastern  part  of  Arabia  a  man  is  sitting 
by  a  well.  It  is  an  arid  country,  and  water  is  scarce, 
so  that  a  well  is  of  great  value,  and  flocks  and  herds 
are  driven  vast  distances  to  have  their  thirst  slaked. 
Jethro,  a  Midianite  sheik  and  priest,  was  so  fortunate 
as  to  have  seven  daughters;  and  they  are  practical 
girls,  and  yonder  they  come  driving  the  sheep  and 
cattle  and  camels  of  their  father  to  the  watering. 
They  lower  the  buckets  and  then  pull  them  up,  the 
water  plashing  on  the  stones  and  chilling  their  feet, 
and  the  troughs  are  filled.  Who  is  that  man  out  there 
sitting  unconcerned  and  looking  on?  Why  does  he 
not  come  and  help  the  women  in  this  hard  work  of 
drawing  water  ?  But  no  sooner  have  the  dry  lips  and 
panting  nostrils  of  the  flocks  begun  to  cool  a  little 
in  the  brimming  trough  of  the  well,  than  some  rough 
Bedouin  shepherds  break  in  upon  the  scene,  and  with 
clubs  and  shouts  drive  back  the  animals  that  were 
drinking,  and  affright  these  girls  until  they  fly  in  re- 
treat, and  the  flocks  of  these  ill-mannered  shepherds 
are  driven  to  the  troughs,  taking  the  places  of  tlie 
other  flocks.  Now  that  man  sitting  by  the  well  be- 
gins to  color  up,  and  his  eye  flashes  with  indignation, 
and  all  the  gallantry  of  his  nature  is  aroused.  It  is 
Moses,  who  naturally  had  a  quick  temper  anyhow, 
as  he  demonstrated  on  one  occasion  when  he  saw  an 
Egyptian  oppressing  an  Israelite  and  gave  the 
Egyptian  a  sudden  clip  and  buried  him  in  the  sand, 
VOL.  xr.  225 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

and  as  he  showed  afterward  when  he  broke  all  the 
Ten  Commandments  at  once  by  shattering  the  two 
granite  slabs  on  which  the  law  was  written.  But  the 
injustice  of  this  treatment  of  the  seven  girls  sets  him 
on  fire  with  wrath,  and  he  takes  this  shepherd  by  the 
throat,  and  pushes  back  another  shepherd  till  he  falls 
over  the  trough,  and  aims  a  stunning  blow  between 
the  eyes  of  another,  as  he  cries,  "  Begone,  you  vil- 
lains !  "  and  he  hoots  and  roars  at  the  sheep  and  cat- 
tle and  camels  of  these  invaders  and  drives  them 
back ;  and  having  cleared  the  place  of  the  desperadoes, 
he  told  the  seven  girls  of  this  Midianite  sheik  to 
gather  their  flocks  together  and  bring  them  again  to 
the  watering. 

You  ought  to  see  a  fight  between  the  shepherds 
at  a  well  in  the  Orient  as  I  saw  it  in  December,  1889. 
There  were  here  a  group  of  rough  men  who  had 
driven  the  cattle  many  miles,  and  here  another  group 
who  had  driven  their  cattle  as  many  miles.  Who 
should  have  precedence?  Such  clashing  of  buckets! 
Such  hooking  of  horns !  Such  kicking  of  hoofs ! 
Such  vehemence  in  a  language  I  fortunately  could  not 
understand!  Now  the  sheep  with  a  peculiar  mark 
across  their  woolly  backs  were  at  the  trough,  and 
now  the  sheep  of  another  mark.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  exciting  scenes  I  ever  witnessed.  An  old  book 
describes  one  of  these  contentions  at  an  Eastern  well 
when  it  says :  "One  day  the  poor  men,  the  widows 
and  the  orphans  met  together  and  were  driving  their 
camels  and  their  flocks  to  drink,  and  were  all  stand- 
ing by  the  water-side.  Daji  came  up  and  stopped 
them  all,  and  took  possession  of  the  wafer  for  his 
master's  cattle.  Just  then  an  old  woman  belonging 
to  the  tribe  of  Abs  came  up  and  accosted  him  in  a 
suppliant  manner,  saying,  '  Be  so  good,  Master  Daji, 
as  to  let  my  cattle  drink.    They  are  all  the  property 

226  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

I  possess  and  I  live  by  their  milk.  Pity  my  flock, 
have  compassion  on  me.  Grant  my  request  and  let 
them  drink.'  Then  came  another  old  woman  and 
addressed  him :  '  O,  Master  Daji,  I  am  a  poor,  weak 
old  woman,  as  you  see.  Time  has  dealt  hardly  with 
me.  It  has  aimed  its  arrows  at  me,  and  its  daily  and 
nightly  calamities  have  destroyed  all  my  men.  I 
have  lost  my  children  and  my  husband,  and  since  then 
I  have  been  in  great  distress.  These  goats  or  cattle 
are  all  that  I  possess.  Let  them  drink,  for  I  live  on 
the  milk  that  they  produce.  Pity  my  forlorn  state. 
I  have  no  one  to  tend  them.  Therefore,  grant  my 
supplication  and  of  thy  kindness  let  them  drink.' 
But  in  this  case  the  brutal  slave,  so  far  from  granting 
this  humble  request,  smote  the  woman  to  the  ground." 
A  like  scrimmage  has  taken  place  at  the  well  in 
the  triangle  of  Arabia  between  the  Bedouin  shepherds 
and  Moses  championing  the  cause  of  the  seven  daugh- 
ters who  had  driven  their  father's  flocks  to  the  water- 
ing. One  of  these  girls,  Zipporah,  her  name  meaning 
"  little  bird,"  was  fascinated  by  this  heroic  behavior 
of  Moses;  for,  however  timid  woman  herself  ciay 
be,  she  always  admires  courage  in  a  man.  Zipporah 
became  the  bride  of  Moses,  one  of  the  mightiest  men 
of  all  the  centuries.  Zipporah  little  thought  that 
that  morning  as  she  helped  drive  her  father's  flocks 
to  the  well,  she  was  splendidly  deciding  her  own 
destiny.  Had  she  stayed  in  the  tent  or  house  while 
the  other  six  daughters  of  the  sheik  tended  to  their 
herds,  her  life  would  probably  have  been  a  tame  and 
uneventful  life  in  the  solitudes.  But  her  industry, 
her  fideHty  to  her  father's  interest,  her  spirit  of  help- 
fulness brought  her  into  league  with  one  of  the  grand- 
est characters  of  all  history.  They  met  at  that  fa- 
mous well,  and  while  she  admired  the  courage  of 
Moses,  he  admired  the  filial  behavior  of  Zipporah. 
VOL.  XI.  227 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

The  fact  that  it  took  the  seven  daughters  to  drive 
the  flocks  to  the  well  implies  that  they  were  immense 
flocks,  and  that  her  father  was  a  man  of  wealth. 
What  was  the  use  of  Zipporah's  bemeaning  herself 
with  work  when  she  might  have  reclined  on  the  hill- 
side near  her  father's  tent,  and  plucked  buttercups, 
and  dreamed  out  romances,  and  sighed  idly  to  the 
winds,  and  wept  over  imaginary  songs  to  the  brooks. 
No;  she  knew  that  work  was  honorable,  and  that 
every  girl  ought  to  have  something  to  do,  and  so  she 
starts  with  the  bleating  and  lowing  and  bellowing  and 
neighing  droves  to  the  well  for  the  watering. 

Around  every  home  there  are  flocks  and  droves 
of  cares  and  anxieties,  and  every  daughter  of  the 
family,  though  there  be  seven,  ought  to  be  doing  her 
part  to  take  care  of  the  flocks.  In  many  households, 
not  only  is  Zipporah,  but  all  her  sisters,  without  prac- 
tical and  useful  employments.  Many  of  them  are 
waiting  for  fortunate  and  prosperous  matrimonial  al- 
liance, but  some  lounger  like  themselves  will  come 
along,  and  after  counting  the  large  number  of  father 
Jethro's  sheep  and  camels  will  make  proposal  that 
will  be  accepted;  and  neither  of  them  having  done 
anything  more  practical  than  to  chew  chocolate  cara- 
mels, the  two  nothings  will  start  on  the  road  of  life 
together,  every  step  more  and  more  a  failure.  That 
daughter  of  the  Midianitish  sheik  will  never  find  her 
Moses.  Girls  of  America!  imitate  Zipporah.  Do 
something  practical.  Do  something  helpful.  Do 
something  well.  Many  have  fathers  with  great  flocks 
of  absorbing  duties,  and  such  a  father  needs  help  in 
home  or  office  or  field.  Go  out  and  help  him  with 
the  flocks.  The  reason  that  so  many  men  now  con- 
demn themselves  to  unaffianced  and  soHtary  life  is 
because  they  cannot  support  the  modern  young 
woman,  who  rises  at  half-past  ten  in  the  morning  and 

228  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

retires  at  midnight,  one  of  the  trashiest  of  novels  in 
her  hands  most  of  the  time  between  the  late  rising 
and  the  late  retiring  —  a  thousand  of  them  not  worth 
one  Zipporah. 

There  is  a  question  that  every  father  and  mother 
ought  to  ask  the  daughter  at  breakfast  or  tea  table, 
and  that  all  the  daughters  of  the  wealthy  sheik  ought 
to  ask  each  other:  "  What  would  you  do  if  the  family 
fortune  should  fail,  if  sickness  should  prostrate  the 
breadwinner,  if  the  flocks  of  Jethro  should  be  de- 
stroyed by  a  sudden  incursion  of  wolves  and  bears  and 
hyenas  from  the  mountain?  What  would  you  do  for 
a  living?  Could  you  support  yourself?  Can  you  take 
care  of  an  invalid  mother  or  brother  or  sister  as  well 
as  yourself  ?  "  Yea,  bring  it  down  to  what  any  day 
might  come  to  a  prosperous  family.  "  Can  you  cook 
a  dinner  if  the  servants  should  make  a  strike  for  higher 
wages  and  leave  that  morning?  "  Every  minute  of 
every  hour  of  every  day  of  every  year  there  are  fami- 
lies flung  from  prosperity  into  hardship,  and  alas!  if 
in  such  exigency  the  seven  daughters  of  Jethro  can  do 
nothing  but  sit  around  and  cry  and  wait  for  some  one 
to  come  and  hunt  them  up  a  situation  for  which  they 
have  no  qualification.  Get  at  something  useful;  get 
at  it  right  away! 

My  friend  and  Washingtonian  townsman,  W.  W. 
Corcoran,  did  a  magnificent  thing  when  he  built  and 
endowed  the  "  Louise  Home  "  for  the  support  of  the 
unfortunate  aristocracy  of  the  South  —  the  people 
who  once  had  everything  but  have  come  to  nothing. 
We  want  another  W.  W.  Corcoran  to  build  a  "  Louise 
Home  "  for  the  unfortunate  aristocracy  of  the  North. 
But  institutions  like  that  in  every  city  of  the  land 
could  not  take  care  of  one-half  of  the  unfortunate  aris- 
tocracy of  the  North  and  South,  whose  large  fortunes 
have  failed,  and  who,  through  lack  of  acquaintance 
VOL.  XI.  2ag 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

with  any  style  of  work,  cannot  now  earn  their  own 
bread.  There  needs  to  be  peaceful,  yet  radical  revo- 
lution among  most  of  the  prosperous  homes  of 
America,  by  which  the  elegant  do-nothings  may  be 
transformed  into  practical  do-somethings.  Let  use- 
less women  go  to  work  and  gather  the  flocks.  Come, 
Zipporah,  let  me  introduce  you  to  Moses! 

But  you  do  not  mean  that  this  man  affianced  to 
this  country  girl  was  the  great  Moses  of  history,  do 
you?  You  do  not  mean  that  he  was  the  man  who 
afterward  wrought  such  wonders?  Surely,  you  do 
not  mean  the  man  whose  staff  dropped,  wriggled  into 
a  serpent,  and  then,  clutched,  stiffened  again  into  a 
staff?  You  do  not  mean  the  challenger  of  Egyptian 
thrones  and  palaces?  You  do  not  mean  him  who 
struck  the  rock  so  hard  it  wept  in  a  stream  for  thirsty 
hosts?  Surely,  you  do  not  mean  the  man  who  stood 
alone  with  God  on  the  quaking  Sinaitic  ranges;  not 
him  to  whom  the  Red  Sea  was  surrendered?  Yes,  the 
same  Moses  who  afterward  rescued  a  nation,  defend- 
ing the  seven  daughters  of  the  Midianitish  sheik. 
Why,  do  you  not  know  that  this  is  the  way  men  and 
women  get  prepared  for  special  work.  The  wilder- 
ness of  Arabia  was  the  law  school,  the  theological 
seminary,  the  university  of  rock  and  sand,  from  which 
he  graduated  for  a  mission  that  will  balk  seas,  and 
drown  armies,  and  lift  the  lantern  of  illumined  cloud 
by  night,  and  start  the  workmen  with  bleeding  backs 
among  Egyptian  brick-kilns  toward  the  pasture  lands 
that  flow  with  milk  and  the  trees  of  Canaan  dripping 
with  honey.  Gracious  God,  teach  all  the  people  this 
lesson.  You  must  go  into  humiliation  and  retirement 
and  hidden  closets  of  prayer  if  you  are  to  be  fitted 
for  special  usefulness.  How  did  John  the  Baptist  get 
prepared  to  become  a  forerunner  of  Christ?  Show 
me  his  wardrobe.     It  will  be  hung  with  silken  socks 

330  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

and  embroidered  robes  and  attire  of  Tyrian  purple? 
Show  me  his  dining  table.  On  it  the  tankards  ablush 
with  the  richest  wines  of  the  vineyards  of  Engedi, 
and  rarest  birds  that  were  ever  caught  in  net,  and 
sweetest  venison  that  ever  dropped  antlers  before  the 
hunter  ?  No  ;  we  are  distinctly  told  "  the  same  John 
had  his  raiment  of  camels'  hair  "  —  not  the  fine  hair 
of  the  camel  which  we  call  camlet,  but  the  long,  coarse 
hair  such  as  beggars  in  the  East  wear  —  and  his  only 
meat  was  of  insects,  the  green  locust,  about  two 
inches  long,  roasted,  a  disgusting  food.  These  in- 
sects were  caught  and  the  wings  and  legs  torn  off,  and 
they  were  stuck  on  wooden  spits  and  turned  before 
the  fire.  The  Bedouins  pack  them  in  salt  and  carry 
them  in  sacks.  What  a  menu  for  John  the  Baptist! 
Through  what  deprivation  he  came  to  what  exaltation ! 
And  you  will  have  to  go  down  before  you  go  up. 
From  the  pit  into  which  his  brothers  threw  him,  and 
the  prison  in  which  his  enemies  incarcerated  him, 
Joseph  rose  to  be  Egyptian  prime  minister.  Elijah, 
who  was  to  be  the  greatest  of  all  the  ancient  prophets, 
Elijah,  who  made  King  Ahab's  knees  knock  together 
with  the  prophecy  that  the  dogs  would  be  his  only 
undertakers;  Elijah,  whose  one  prayer  brought  more 
than  three  years  of  drought,  and  whose  other  prayer 
brought  drenching  showers;  the  man  who  wrapped  up 
his  cape  of  sheepskin  into  a  roll  and  with  it  cut  a 
path  through  raging  Jordan  for  just  two  to  pass  over; 
the  man  who  with  wheel  of  fire  rode  over  death  and 
escaped  into  the  skies  without  mortuary  disintegra- 
tion ;  the  man  who,  hundreds  of  years  after,  was  called 
out  of  the  eternities  to  stand  beside  Jesus  Christ  on 
Mount  Tabor  when  it  was  ablaze  with  the  splendors 
of  transfiguration  —  this  man  could  look  back  to  the 
time  when  voracious  and  filthy  ravens  were  his  only 
caterers. 
VOL.  XI.  331 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmagc 

You  see  John  Knox  preaching  the  coronation  ser- 
morf  of  James  VI,  and  arraigning  Queen  Mary  and 
Lord  Darnley  in  a  public  discourse  at  Edinburgh,  and 
telHng  the  French  ambassador  to  go  home  and  call 
his  king  a  murderer;  John  Knox  making  all  Christen- 
dom feel  his  moral  power,  and  at  his  burial  the  Earl 
of  Morton  saying,  "  Here  lieth  a  man  who  in  his  life 
never  feared  the  face  of  man."  Where  did  John  Knox 
get  much  of  his  schooling  for  such  resounding  and 
everlasting  achievement?  He  got  it  while  in  chains 
pulling  at  the  boat's  oar  in  French  captivity.  Michael 
Faraday,  one  of  the  greatest  masters  in  the  scientific 
world,  did  not  begin  by  lecturing  in  the  university. 
He  began  by  washing  bottles  in  the  laboratory  of 
Humphrey  Davy.  So  the  privations  and  hardships 
of  your  life  may  on  a  smaller  scale  be  the  preface  and 
introduction  to  usefulness  and  victory. 

See  also  in  this  call  of  Moses  that  God  has  a  great 
memory.  Four  hundred  years  before  he  had  promised 
the  deliverance  of  the  oppressed  Israelites  of  Egypt, 
The  clock  of  time  has  struck  the  hour,  and  now  Moses 
is  called  to  the  work  of  rescue.  Four  hundred  years 
is  a  very  long  time,  but  you  see  God  can  remember  a 
promise  four  hundred  years  as  well  as  you  can  re- 
member four  hundred  minutes.  Four  hundred  years 
includes  all  your  ancestry  that  you  know  anything 
about  and  all  the  promises  made  to  them,  and  we  may 
expect  fulfillment  in  our  heart  and  life  of  all  the  bless- 
ings predicted  to  our  Christian  ancestry  centuries  ago. 
You  have  a  dim  remembrance,  if  any  remembrance 
at  all,  of  your  great-grandfather,  but  God  sees  those 
who  were  on  their  knees  in  1598  as  well  as  those  on 
their  knees  in  1898,  and  the  blessings  he  promised  the 
former  and  their  descendants  have  arrived,  or  will  ar- 
rive. While  piety  is  not  hereditary,  it  is  a  grand  thing 
to  have  had  a  pious  ancestry.     So  God  in  this  chapter 

332  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

calls  up  the  pedigree  of  the  people  whom  Moses  was 
to  deliver,  and  Moses  is  ordered  to  say  to  them,  "  The 
Lord  God  of  your  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham,  the 
God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob  hath  sent  me  unto 
you."  If  that  thought  be  divinely  accurate,  let  me  ask. 
What  are  we  doing  by  prayer  and  by  a  holy  life  for 
the  redemption  of  the  next  four  hundred  years?  Our 
work  is  not  only  with  the  people  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  with  those  in  the  closing 
of  the  twentieth  century  and  the  closing  of  the  twenty- 
first  century  and  the  closing  of  the  twenty-second  cen- 
tury and  the  closing  of  the  twenty-third  century.  For 
four  hundred  years,  if  the  world  continues  to  swing 
until  that  time,  or  if  it  drops,  then  notwithstanding  the 
influence  will  go  on  in  other  latitudes  and  longitudes 
of  God's  universe. 

No  one  realizes  how  great  he  is  for  good  or  for 
evil.  There  are  branchings  out  and  rebounds  and  re- 
verberations and  elaborations  of  influence  that  can- 
not be  estimated.  The  fifty  or  one  hundred  years  of 
our  earthly  stay  are  only  a  small  part  of  our  sphere. 
The  flap  of  the  wing  of  the  destroying  angel  that 
smote  the  Egyptian  oppressors,  the  wash  of  the  Red 
Sea  over  the  heads  of  the  drowned  Egyptians,  were 
all  fulfillments  of  promises  four  centuries  old.  And 
things  occur  in  your  life  and  in  mine  that  we  cannot 
account  for.  They  may  be  the  echoes  of  what  was 
promised  in  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  century.  Oh, 
the  prolongation  of  the  divine  memory! 

Notice,  also,  that  Moses  was  eighty  years  of  age 
when  he  got  this  call  to  become  the  Israelitish  deliv- 
erer. Forty  years  he  had  lived  in  palaces  as  a  prince; 
another  forty  years  he  had  lived  in  the  wilderness  of 
Arabia.  I  should  not  wonder  if  he  had  said :  "  Take 
a  younger  man  for  this  work.  Eighty  winters  have 
exposed  my  health ;  eighty  summers  have  poured  their 
VOL.  XI.  233 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

heats  upon  my  head.  There  are  the  forty  years  that 
I  spent  among  the  enervating  luxuries  of  a  palace, 
and  then  followed  the  forty  years  of  wilderness  hard- 
ship. I  am  too  old.  Let  me  ofi.  Better  call  a  man 
in  the  forties  or  fifties,  and  not  one  who  has  entered 
upon  the  eighties."  Nevertheless,  he  undertook  the 
work,  and  if  we  want  to  know  whether  he  succeeded, 
ask  the  abandoned  brick-kilns  of  Egyptian  task-mas- 
ters, and  the  splintered  chariot  wheels  strewn  on  the 
beach  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  timbrels  which  Miriam 
clapped  for  the  Israelites  passed  over  and  the  Egypt- 
ians gone  under.  Do  not  retire  too  early.  Like  Moses, 
you  may  have  your  chief  work  to  do  after  eighty.  It 
may  not  be  in  the  high  places  of  the  field ;  it  may  not 
be  where  a  strong  arm  and  an  athletic  foot  and  a  clear 
vision  are  required,  but  there  is  something  for  you  yet 
to  do.  Perhaps  it  may  be  to  round  off  the  work  you 
have  already  done;  to  demonstrate  the  patience  you 
have  been  recommending  all  your  lifetime;  perhaps  to 
stand  a  lighthouse  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay  to  light 
others  into  harbor;  perhaps  to  show  how  glorious  a 
sunset  may  come  after  a  stormy  day.  If  aged  men  do 
not  feel  strong  enough  for  anything  else,  let  them  sit 
around  in  our  churches  and  pray,  and  perhaps  in  that 
way  they  may  accomplish  more  good  than  they  ever 
did  in  the  meridian  of  their  life.  It  makes  us  feel 
strong  to  see  aged  men  and  women  all  up  and  down 
the  pews,  their  faces  showing  they  have  been  on  moun- 
tains of  transfiguration.  We  want  in  all  our  churches 
more  men  like  Moses,  men  who  have  been  through 
the  deeps  and  climbed  up  the  shelled  beach  on  the 
other  side.  We  want  aged  Jacobs,  who  have  seen  lad- 
ders which  let  down  heaven  into  their  dreams.  We 
want  aged  Peters,  who  have  been  at  Pentecosts,  and 
aged  Pauls,  who  have  made  Felix  tremble.  There 
are  here  and  there  those  who  feel  like  the  woman  of 

234  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

ninety  years  who  said  to  Fontenelle,  who  was  eighty- 
five  years  of  age,  "  Death  appears  to  have  forgotten 
us."  "  Hush,"  said  Fontenelle,  the  wit,  putting  his 
finger  to  his  lip.  No,  my  friend  you  have  not  been 
forgotten.  You  will  be  called  at  the  right  time. 
Meantime,  be  holily  occupied.  Let  the  aged  remem- 
ber that  by  increased  longevity  of  the  race  men  are  not 
as  old  at  sixty  as  they  used  to  be  at  fifty,  not  as  old 
at  seventy  as  they  used  to  be  at  sixty,  not  as  old  at 
eighty  as  they  used  to  be  at  seventy.  Sanitary  pre- 
caution better  understood ;  medical  science  further  ad- 
vanced ;  laws  of  health  more  thoroughly  adopted ;  den- 
tistry continuing  for  longer  time  successful  mastica- 
tion; homes  and  churches  and  court-rooms  and 
places  of  business  better  ventilated  —  all  these  have 
prolonged  life,  and  men  and  women  in  the  close  of 
this  century  ought  not  to  retire  until  at  least  fifteen 
years  later  than  in  the  opening  of  the  century.  Do 
not  put  the  harness  oflf  until  you  have  fought  a  few 
more  battles.  Think  of  Moses  starting  out  for  his 
chief  work  an  octogenarian;  forty  years  of  wilderness 
life  after  forty  years  of  palace  life,  yet  just  beginning. 
There  died,  at  Hawarden,  England,  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  men  that  ever  lived  since  the  ages 
of  time  began  their  roll.  He  was  the  chief  citizen  of 
the  whole  world.  Three  times  had  he  practically  been 
king  of  Great  Britain.  Again  and  again  coming  from 
the  House  of  Commons,  which  he  had  thrilled  and 
overawed  in  his  eloquence,  on  Saturday,  on  Sunday 
morning  reading  prayers  for  the  people  with  illumined 
countenance  and  brimming  eyes  and  resounding  voice, 
saying,  "  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth,  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  Son, 
our  Lord."  The  world  has  no  other  such  man  to  lose 
as  Gladstone;  the  Church  had  no  other  such  cham- 
pion to  mourn  over.  I  shall  never  cease  to  thank  God 
VOL.  XI.  235 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

that  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  invitation  I  visited  him  at 
Hawarden,  and  heard  from  his  own  Hps  his  belief  in 
the  authenticity  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  divinity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  grandeurs  of  the  world  to 
come.  At  his  table  and  in  the  walk  through  his 
grounds  I  was  impressed  as  I  was  never  before,  and 
probably  will  never  be  again,  with  the  majesty  of  a 
nature  all  consecrated  to  God  and  the  world's  better- 
ment. In  the  presence  of  such  a  man,  what  have 
those  to  say  who  profess  to  think  that  our  religion  is 
a  pusillanimous  and  weak  and  cowardly  and  unrea- 
sonable afifair?     Matchless  William  E.  Gladstone! 

Still  further,  watch  this  spectacle  of  genuine  cour- 
age. No  wonder  when  Moses  scattered  the  rude  shep- 
herds, he  won  Zipporah's  heart.  What  mattered  it 
to  Moses  whether  the  cattle  of  the  seven  daughters 
of  Jethro  were  driven  from  the  troughs  by  the  rude 
herdsmen?  Sense  of  justice  fired  his  courage;  and 
the  world  wants  more  of  the  spirit  that  will  dare  al- 
most anything  to  see  others  righted.  All  the  time 
at  wells  of  comfort,  at  wells  of  joy,  at  wells  of  religion, 
and  at  wells  of  literature  there  are  outrages  practised, 
the  wrong  herds  getting  the  first  water.  Those  who 
have  the  previous  right  come  in  last,  if  they  come  in 
at  all.  Thank  God,  we  have  here  and  there  a  strong 
man  to  set  things  right !  I  am  so  glad  that  when  God 
has  an  especial  work  to  do,  he  has  some  one  ready 
to  accomplish  it.  Is  there  a  Bible  to  translate,  there 
is  a  Wickliflfe  to  translate  it ;  if  there  is  a  literature  to 
be  energized,  there  is  a  Shakespeare  to  energize  it; 
if  there  is  an  error  to  smite,  there  is  a  Luther  to  smite 
it;  if  there  is  to  be  a  nation  freed,  there  is  a  Moses  to 
free  it.  But  courage  is  needed  in  religion,  in  litera- 
ture, in  statesmanship,  in  all  spheres;  heroics  to  de- 
fend Jethro's  seven  daughters  and  their  flocks  and  put 
to  flight  the  insolent  invaders.    And  those  who  do 

236  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

the  brave  work  will  win  somewhere  high  reward.  The 
loudest  cheer  of  heaven  is  to  be  given  "  to  him  that 
overcometh." 

Still  further,  see  in  this  call  of  Moses  that  if  God 
has  any  especial  work  for  you  to  do  he  will  find  you. 
There  were  Egypt  and  Arabia  and  Palestine  with  their 
crowded  population,  but  the  man  the  Lord  wanted 
was  at  the  southern  point  of  the  triangle  of  Arabia, 
and  he  picks  him  right  out,  the  shepherd  who  kept  the 
flock  of  Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  the  priest  and  sheik. 
So  God  will  not  find  it  hard  to  take  you  out  from  the 
sixteen  hundred  million  of  the  human  race  if  he  wants 
you  for  anything  especial.  There  was  only  just  one 
man  qualified.  Other  men  had  courage  like  Moses; 
other  men  had  some  of  the  talents  of  Moses;  other 
men  had  romance  in  their  history,  as  had  Moses;  other 
men  were  impetuous,  like  Moses;  but  no  other  man 
had  these  different  qualities  in  the  exact  proportion 
as  had  Moses;  and  God,  who  makes  no  mistake,  found 
the  right  man  for  the  right  place.  Do  not  fear  you 
will  be  overlooked,  or  that  when  you  are  wanted  God 
cannot  find  you.  He  knows  your  name,  your  feat- 
ures, your  temp<erament,  and  your  characteristics,  and 
in  what  land  or  city  or  ward  or  neighborhood  or 
house  you  live.  He  will  not  have  to  send  out  scouts 
or  explorers  to  find  your  residence  or  place  of  stop- 
ping, and  when  he  wants  you  he  will  make  it  as  plain 
that  he  means  you  as  he  made  it  plain  that  he  needed 
Moses.  He  called  his  name  twice,  as  afterward  when 
he  called  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  he  called 
twice,  saying  "  Saul,  Saul,"  and  when  he  called  the 
troubled  housekeeper  he  called  her  twice,  saying 
"  Martha,  Martha,"  and  when  he  called  the  prophet  to 
his  mission  he  called  him  twice,  saying,  "  Samuel, 
Samuel,"  and  now  he  wants  a  deliverer  he  calls  twice, 
saying  "  Moses,  Moses."  Yes,  if  God  has  anything 
VOL.  XI.  ^37 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

for  us  to  do  he  will  call  us  twice  by  name.  At  the 
first  announcement  of  our  name  we  may  think  it  pos- 
sible that  we  misunderstood  the  sound,  but  after  he 
calls  us  twice  by  name  we  know  he  means  us  as  cer- 
tainly as  when  he  twice  spoke  the  names  of  Saul  or 
Martha  or  Samuel  or  Moses. 

You  see,  religion  is  a  tremendous  personality.  We 
all  have  the  general  call  to  salvation.  We  hear  it  in 
songs,  in  sermons,  in  prayers;  we  hear  it  year  after 
year.  But  after  a  while,  through  our  own  sudden 
and  alarming  illness,  or  the  death  of  a  playmate  or  a 
schoolmate  or  a  college-mate,  or  the  decease  of  a 
business  partner,  or  the  demise  of  a  next-door  neigh- 
bor, we  get  the  especial  call  to  repentance  and  a  new 
life  and  eternal  happiness,  and  we  know  that  God 
means  us.  Oh,  have  you  noticed  this  way  in  which 
God  calls  us  twice?  Two  failures  of  investments;  two 
sicknesses;  two  persecutions;  two  bereavements;  two 
disappointments;  two  disasters.     Moses!     Moses! 

•  Still  further  notice  that  the  call  of  Moses  was  writ- 
ten in  letters  of  fire.  On  the  Sinaitic  peninsula  there 
is  a  thorn  bush  called  the  acacia,  dry  and  brittle,  and 
it  easily  goes  down  at  the  touch  of  the  flame.  It 
crackles  and  turns  to  ashes  very  quickly.  Moses  see- 
ing one  of  these  bushes  on  fire,  goes  to  look  at  it.  At 
first,  no  doubt,  it  seemed  to  be  a  botanical  curiosity, 
burning,  yet  crumpling  no  leaf,  parting  no  stem,  scat- 
tering no  ashes.  It  was  a  supernatural  fire  that  did 
no  damage  to  the  vegetation.  That  burning  bush 
was  the  call.  Your  call  will  probably  come  in  letters 
of  fire.  Ministers  get  their  call  to  preach  in  letters 
on  paper  or  parchment  or  typewritten,  but  it  does  not 
amount  to  much,  unless  they  have  already  had  a  call 
in  letters  of  fire.  You  will  not  amount  to  much  in 
usefulness  until  somewhere  near  you  find  a  burning 
bush.     It  may  be  found  burning  in  the  hectic  flush  of 

338  VOL.  XI. 


The  Sheik's  Daughter 

your  child's  cheek;  it  may  be  found  burning  in  busi- 
ness misfortune;  it  may  be  found  burning  in  the  fire 
of  the  world's  scorn  or  hate  or  misrepresentation.  But 
hearken  to  the  crackle  of  the  burning  bush! 

What  a  fascinating  and  inspiring  character,  this 
Moses!  How  tame  all  other  stories  compared  with 
the  biography  of  Moses !  From  the  lattice  of  her  bath- 
ing-house on  the  Nile,  Thermutis,  daughter  of  Pha- 
raoh, sees  him  in  the  floating  cradle  of  papyrus  leaves 
made  water-tight  by  bitumen ;  his  infantile  cry  is  heard 
among  the  marble  palaces  and  princesses  hush  him 
with  their  lullabies;  workmen  by  the  roadside  drop 
their  work  to  look  on  him  when  as  a  boy  he  passed, 
so  beautiful  was  he;  two  bowls  put  before  his  infant 
eyes  for  choice  to  demonstrate  his  wisdom,  the  one 
bowl  containing  rubies  and  the  other  coals  of  fire. 
Sufficiently  wise  was  he  to  take  the  gems,  but,  divinely 
directed,  he  took  the  coals  and  put  them  to  his  mouth, 
and  his  tongue  was  burnt,  and  he  was  left  a  stam- 
merer all  his  days,  so  that  he  declared,  in  Exod.  4:10, 
"  I  am  slow  of  speech  and  of  slow  tongue;"  on  and 
on  until  he  set  firm  foot  among  the  crumbling  basalt, 
and  his  ear  was  not  deafened  by  the  thunderous 
"  Thou  shalt  not "  of  Mount  Sinai,  the  man  who  went 
to  the  relief  of  the  Israelites  who  were  scourged  be- 
cause with  chopped  straw  they  were  required  to  make 
firm  bricks,  the  story  of  their  oppression  found  chis- 
eled on  the  tomb  of  Roschere  at  Thebes;  and  when 
the  armies  were  impeded  by  venomous  serpents,  sent 
crates  of  ibises,  the  snake-destroying  birds,  to  clear 
the  way  so  that  his  host  could  march  straight  ahead, 
thus  surprising  the  enemy,  who  thought  they  must 
take  another  route  to  avoid  the  reptiles ;  the  whole  sky 
an  aviary,  to  drop  quails  for  him  and  the  hosts 
following:  the  only  man  in  all  ages  whom  Christ 
likens  to  himself ;  the  man  of  whom  it  is  written,  "  Je- 
voL.  XI.  239 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

hovah  spoke  unto  Moses  face  to  face  as  a  man  speak- 
eth  to  his  friend ;  "  the  man  who  had  the  most  won- 
drous funeral  of  all  time,  the  Lord  coming  down  out 
of  heaven  to  bury  him.  No  human  lips  to  read  the 
service.  No  choir  to  chant  a  psalm.  No  organ  to 
roll  a  requiem.  No  angel  alighting  upon  the  scene; 
but  God  laying  him  out  for  the  last  sleep;  God  up- 
turning the  earth  to  receive  the  saint ;  God  smoothing 
or  banking  the  dust  above  the  sacred  form ;  God,  with 
farewell  and  benediction,  closing  the  sublime  obse- 
quies of  lawgiver,  poet  and  warrior.  "And  no  man 
knoweth  of  his  sepulcher  unto  this  day." 


440  VOL.  XI. 


SPIDERS  IN  PALACES 

Prov.,  30:  28:    "The  spider  taketh  hojd  with   her   hands, 
and  is  in  kings'  palaces." 


SPIDERS  IN  PALACES 

Prov.,  30:  28:     "  The  spider  taketh  hojd  with   her   hands, 
and  is  in  kings'  palaces." 

Privileged  a  few  years  ago  to  attend  the  meeting  of 
the  British  Scientific  Association  at  Edinburgh,  I 
found  that  no  paper  read  excited  more  attention  than 
that  read  by  Rev.  Dr.  Cook,  of  America,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  "  Spiders."  It  seems  that  my  talented  country- 
man, banished  from  his  pulpit  for  a  short  time  by  ill- 
health,  had  in  the  fields  and  forests  given  himself  up 
to  the  study  of  insects.  And  surely,  if  it  is  not  beneath 
the  dignity  of  God  to  make  spiders,  it  is  not  beneath 
the  dignity  of  man  to  study  them. 

We  are  all  watching  for  phenomena.  A  sky  full  of 
stars,  shining  from  year  to  year,  calls  out  not  so  many 
remarks  as  the  blazing  of  one  meteor.  A  whole  flock 
of  robins  take  not  so  much  of  our  attention  as  one 
blundering  bat  darting  into  the  window  on  a  summer 
eve.  Things  of  ordinary  sound  and  sight  and  occur- 
rence fail  to  reach  us,  yet  no  grasshopper  ever  springs 
up  in  our  path,  no  moth  ever  dashes  into  the  evening 
candle,  no  mote  ever  floats  in  the  sunbeam  that  pours 
through  the  crack  of  the  window-shutter,  no  barnacle 
on  ship's  hull,  no  burr  on  chestnut,  no  limpet  clinging 
to  a  rock,  no  rind  of  an  artichoke  but  would  teach  us 
a  lesson  if  we  were  not  so  stupid. 

God,  in  his  Bible  sets  forth  for  our  consideration 
the  lily  and  the  snowflake  and  the  locust  and  the 
stork's  nest  and  the  hind's  foot  and  the  aurora  bore- 
alis  and  the  ant-hills.  One  of  the  sacred  writers,  sit- 
ting amid  the  mountains,  sees  a  hind  skipping  over 
VOL.  XI.  243 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  rocks.  The  hind  has  such  a  peculiarly  shaped 
foot  that  it  can  go  over  the  steepest  places  without 
falling,  and  as  the  prophet  looks  upon  that  marking  of 
the  hind's  foot  upon  the  rocks,  and  thinks  of  the  divine 
care  over  him,  he  says:  "Thou  makest  my  feet  like 
hinds'  feet  that  I  may  walk  on  high  places."  And  an- 
other sacred  writer  sees  the  ostrich  leave  its  egg  in  the 
sand  of  the  desert,  and,  without  any  care  of  incuba- 
tion, walk  off;  and  the  Scripture  says  that  is  like  some 
parents  leaving  their  children  without  any  wing  of 
protection  or  care.  In  my  text,  inspiration  opens  be- 
fore us  the  gate  of  a  palace,  and  we  are  inducted  amid 
the  pomp  of  the  throne  and  the  courtier,  and  while  we 
are  looking  around  upon  the  magnificence,  inspiration 
points  us  to  a  spider  plying  its  shuttle  and  weaving  its 
net  on  the  wall.  It  does  not  call  us  to  regard  the 
grand  surroundings  of  the  palace,  but  to  a  solemn  and 
earnest  consideration  of  the  fact  that  "  the  spider  tak- 
eth  hold  with  her  hands  and  is  in  kings'  palaces."  It 
is  not  very  certain  what  was  the  particular  species  of 
insect  spoken  of  in  the  text,  but  I  shall  proceed  to 
learn  from  it: 

First,  the  exquisiteness  of  the  divine  mechanism. 
The  king's  chamberlain  comes  into  the  palace  and 
looks  around,  and  sees  the  spider  on  the  wall,  and 
says,  "  Away  with  that  intruder,"  and  the  servant  of 
Solomon's  palace  comes  with  his  broom  and  dashes 
down  the  insect,  saying,  "  What  a  loathsome  thing  it 
is."  But  under  microscopic  inspection  I  find  it  more 
wondrous  of  construction  than  the  embroideries  on 
the  palace  wall,  and  the  upholstery  about  the  windows. 
All  the  machinery  of  the  earth  could  not  make  any- 
thing so  delicate  and  beautiful  as  the  prehensile  foot 
with  which  that  spider  clutches  its  prey,  or  as  any  of 
its  eight  eyes.  We  do  not  have  to  go  so  far  up  to  see 
the  power  of  God  in  the  tapestry  hanging  around  the 

244  VOL.  XI. 


Spiders  in  Palaces 

windows  of  heaven,  or  in  the  horses  and  chariots  of 
fire  with  which  the  dying  day  departs,  or  to  look  at 
the  mountain  swinging  out  its  sword-arm  from  under 
the  mantle  of  darkness  until  it  can  strike  with  its 
scimiter  of  the  lightning.  I  love  better  to  study  God 
in  the  shape  of  a  fly's  wing,  in  the  formation  of  a  fish's 
scale,  in  the  snowy  whiteness  of  a  pond-lily.  I  love 
to  track  his  footsteps  in  the  mountain  moss,  and  to 
hear  his  voice  in  the  hum  of  the  rye-fields,  and  dis- 
cover the  rustle  of  his  robe  of  light  in  the  south  wind. 
Oh !  this  wonder  of  divine  power  that  can  build  a  habi- 
tation for  God  in  an  apple  blossom,  and  tune  a  bee's 
voice  until  it  is  fit  for  the  eternal  orchestra,  and  can 
say  to  a  firefly,  "  Let  there  be  light,"  and  from  holding 
an  ocean  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  goes  forth  to  find 
heighths  and  depths  and  lengths  and  breadths  of  om- 
nipotency  in  a  dewdrop,  and  dismounts  from  a  chariot 
of  midnight  hurricane  to  cross  over  on  the  suspension 
bridge  of  a  spider's  web.  You  may  take  your  tele- 
scope and  sway  it  across  the  heavens  in  order  to  be- 
hold the  glory  of  God ;  but  I  will  take  the  leaf  holding 
the  spider  and  the  spider's  web,  and  I  will  bring  the 
microscope  to  my  eye,  and  while  I  gaze  and  look  and 
study,  and  am  confounded,  I  will  kneel  down  in  the 
grass  and  cry :  "  Great  and  marvelous  are  thy  works, 
Lord  God  Almighty." 

Second :  Again,  my  text  teaches  me  that  insignifi- 
cance is  no  excuse  for  inaction.  This  spider  that 
Solomon  saw  on  the  wall  might  have  said,  "  I  can't 
weave  a  web  worthy  of  this  great  palace ;  what  can  I 
do  amid  all  this  gold  and  embroidery?  I  am  not  able 
to  make  anything  fit  for  so  grand  a  place,  and  so  I  will 
not  work  my  spinning-jenny."  Not  so  said  the  spider. 
"  The  spider  taketh  hold  with  her  hands."  Oh!  what 
a  lesson  that  is  for  you  and  me!  You  say  if  you  had 
some  great  sermon  to  preach,  if  you  only  had  a  great 
VOL.  XI.  245 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

audience  to  talk  to,  if  you  had  a  great  army  to  mar- 
shal, if  you  only  had  a  constitution  to  write,  if  there 
were  some  great  thing  in  the  world  for  you  to  do, 
then  you  would  show  us.  Yes,  you  would  show  us! 
What  if  the  Levite  in  the  ancient  temple  had  refused 
to  snuff  the  candle  because  he  could  not  be  a  high 
priest?  What  if  the  humming-bird  should  refuse  to 
sing  its  song  into  the  ear  of  the  honeysuckle,  because 
it  cannot,  like  the  eagle,  dash  its  wing  into  the  sun? 
What  if  the  raindrop  should  refuse  to  descend  because 
it  is  not  a  Niagara?  What  if  the  spider  of  the  text 
should  refuse  to  move  its  shuttle  because  it  cannot 
weave  a  Solomon's  robe?  Away  with  such  folly!  If 
you  are  lazy  with  the  one  talent  you  would  be  lazy 
with  the  ten  talents.  If  Milo  cannot  lift  the  calf  he 
never  will  have  strength  to  lift  the  ox.  In  the  Lord's 
army  there  is  order  for  promotion;  but  you  cannot 
be  a  general  until  you  have  been  a  captain,  a  lieuten- 
ant, and  a  colonel.  It  is  step  by  step,  it  is  inch  by 
inch,  it  is  stroke  by  stroke  that  our  Christian  character 
is  builded.  Therefore  be  content  to  do  what  God  com- 
mands you  to  do.  God  is  not  ashamed  to  do  small 
things.  He  is  not  ashamed  to  be  found  chiseling  a 
grain  of  sand,  or  helping  a  honey-bee  to  construct  its 
cell  with  mathematical  accuracy,  or  tingeing  a  shell 
in  the  surf,  or  shaping  the  bill  of  a  chaffinch.  What 
God  does,  he  does  well.  What  you  do,  do  well,  be  it 
a  great  work  or  a  small  work.  If  ten  talents,  employ 
all  the  ten.  If  five  talents,  employ  all  the  five.  If 
one  talent,  employ  the  one.  If  only  the  thousandth 
part  of  a  talent,  employ  that.  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto 
death,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  crown  of  life."  I  tell 
you  if  you  are  not  faithful  to  God  in  a  small  sphere, 
you  would  be  indolent  and  insignificant  in  a  large 
sphere. 

Third:    Again,  my  text  teaches  me  that  repulsive- 

246  VOL.  XI. 


spiders  in  Palaces 

ness  and  loathsomeness  will  sometimes  climb  up  into 
very  elevated  places.  You  would  have  tried  to  kill 
the  spider  that  Solomon  saw.  You  would  have  said, 
"  This  is  no  place  for  it.  If  that  spider  is  determined  to 
weave  a  web,  let  it  do  so  down  in  the  cellar  of  this 
palace,  or  in  some  dark  dungeon."  Ah!  the  spider 
of  the  text  could  not  be  discouraged.  It  clambered 
on  and  climbed  up,  higher  and  higher  and  higher, 
until,  after  a  while  it  reached  the  king's  vision,  and  he 
said,  "  The  spider  taketh  hold  with  her  hands  and  is 
in  king's  palaces."  And  so  it  often  is  now  that  things 
that  are  loathsome  and  repulsive  get  up  into  very  ele- 
vated places.  The  church  of  Christ  is  a  palace.  The 
King  of  heaven  on  earth  lives  in  it.  According  to 
the  Bible,  her  beams  are  of  cedar,  and  her  rafters  of 
fir,  and  her  windows  of  agate,  and  the  fountains  of 
salvation  dash  a  rain  of  light.  It  is  a  glorious  palace; 
and  yet  sometimes  unseemly  and  loathsome  things 
creep  up  into  it  —  evil-speaking  and  rancor  and  slan- 
der and  backbiting  and  abuse,  crawling  up  on  the 
walls  of  the  church,  spinning  a  web  from  arch  to  arch, 
and  from  the  top  of  one  communion  tankard  to  the 
top  of  another  communion  tankard.  Glorious  pal- 
ace, in  which  there  ought  only  to  be  light  and  love 
and  pardon   and  grace  —  yet  a  spider  in  the  palace! 

Home  ought  to  be  a  castle.  It  ought  to  be  the 
residence  of  everything  loyal.  Kindness,  love,  peace, 
patience,  and  forbearance  ought  to  be  the  princes  re- 
siding there,  and  yet  sometimes  dissipation  crawls  up 
into  that  home,  and  the  jealous  eye  comes  up,  and 
the  scene  of  peace  and  plenty  becomes  the  scene  of 
domestic  jargon  and  dissonance.  You  say,  "  What 
is  the  matter  with  the  home?"  I  will  tell  you  what 
is  the  matter  with  it.     A  spider  in  the  palace. 

A  well-developed  Christian  character  is  a  g^and 
thing  to  look  at.  You  see  some  men  with  gpreat  in- 
voL.  XI.  247 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

tellectual  and  spiritual  proportions.  You  say,  "  How 
useful  that  man  must  be!"  But  you  find  amid  all 
his  splendor  of  faculties  there  is  some  prejudice,  some 
whim,  some  evil  habit,  that  a  great  many  people  do 
not  notice,  but  that  you  have  happened  to  notice,  and 
it  is  gradually  spoiling  that  man's  character;  it  is 
gradually  going  to  injure  his  entire  influence.  Others 
may  not  see  it,  but  you  are  anxious  in  regard  to  his 
welfare,  and  you  deplore  it.  A  dead  fly  in  the  oint- 
ment.    A  spider  in  the  palace. 

Fourth:  Again,  my  text  teaches  me  that  perse- 
verance will  mount  into  the  king's  palace.  It  must 
have  seemed  a  long  distance  for  that  spider  to  climb 
in  Solomon's  splendid  residence,  but  it  started  at  the 
very  foot  of  the  wall  and  went  up  over  the  panels  of 
Lebanon  cedar,  higher  and  higher,  until  it  stood 
higher  than  the  highest  throne  in  all  the  nations  — 
the  throne  of  Solomon.  And  so  God  has  decreed  it, 
that  many  of  those  who  are  down  in  the  dust  of  sin 
and  dishonor  shall  gradually  attain  to  the  king's  palace. 
We  see  it  in  worldly  things.  Who  is  that  banker  in 
Philadelphia?  Why,  he  used  to  be  the  boy  who  held 
the  horses  of  Stephen  Girard  while  the  millionaire 
went  in  to  collect  his  dividends.  Arkwright  toils  on 
up  from  a  barber's  shop  until  he  gets  into  the  palace 
of  invention.  Fletcher  toils  on  up  from  the  most  in- 
significant family  position  until  he  gets  into  the  palace 
of  Christian  eloquence.  Hogarth,  engraving  pewter 
mugs  for  a  living,  toils  on  up  until  he  reaches  the  pal- 
ace of  world-renowned  art.  And  God  hath  decided 
that  though  you  may  be  weak  of  arm  and  slow  of 
tongue  and  be  struck  through  with  a  great  many 
mental  and  moral  deficits,  by  his  Almighty  grace  you 
shall  yet  arrive  in  the  King's  palace  —  not  such  a  one 
as  is  spoken  of  in  the  text,  not  one  of  marble,  not  one 
adorned  with  pillars  of  alabaster  and  thrones  of  ivory 

248  VOL.  XI. 


Spiders  in  Palaces 

and  flagons  of  burnished  gold  —  but  a  palace  in  which 
God  is  the  King  and  the  angels  of  heaven  are  the  cup- 
bearers. 

The  spider  crawling  up  the  wall  of  Solomon's  pal- 
ace was  not  worth  looking  after  or  considering  as 
compared  with  the  fact  that  we,  who  are  the  worms 
of  the  dust,  may  at  last  ascend  into  the  palace  of  the 
King  immortal.  By  the  grace  of  God  we  may  all  reach 
it.  Oh !  heaven  is  not  a  dull  place.  It  is  not  a  worn- 
out  mansion  with  faded  curtains  and  outlandish 
chairs  and  cracked  ware.  No ;  it  is  as  fresh  and  fair 
and  beautiful  as  though  it  were  completed  but  yes- 
terday. The  kings  of  the  earth  shall  bring  their 
honor  and  glory  into  it. 

A  palace  means  splendor  of  apartments.  Now,  I 
do  not  know  where  heaven  is,  and  I  do  not  know  how 
it  looks,  but  if  our  bodies  are  to  be  resurrected  at  the 
last  day,  I  think  heaven  must  have  a  material  splendor 
as  well  as  a  spiritual  grandeur.  What  grandeur  of 
apartments,  when  that  divine  hand  which  turns  the 
sea  into  blue  and  the  foliage  into  green,  and  sets  the 
sunset  on  fire,  shall  gather  all  the  beautiful  colors  of 
earth  around  his  throne,  and  when  that  arm  which 
lifted  the  pillars  of  Alpine  rock  and  bent  the  arch  of  the 
sky  shall  raise  before  our  soul  the  eternal  architecture, 
and  that  hand  which  hung  with  loops  of  fire  the  cur- 
tains of  morning  shall  prepare  the  upholstery  of  our 
kingly  residence! 

A  palace  also  means  splendor  of  associations.  The 
poor  man,  the  outcast,  cannot  get  into  the  Tuileries, 
or  Windsor  Castle.  The  sentinel  stands  there  and 
cries  "  Halt!  "  as  he  tries  to  enter.  But  in  that  pal- 
ace we  may  all  become  residents,  and  we  shall  all  be 
princes  and  kings.  We  may  have  been  beggars,  we 
may  have  been  outcasts,  we  may  have  been  wandering 
as  we  all  have  been,  but  there  we  shall  take  our  regal 
VOL.  XI.  249 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

power.  What  companionship  in  heaven!  To  walk 
side  by  side  with  John  and  James  and  Peter  and  Paul 
and  Moses  and  Joshua  and  Caleb  and  Ezekiel  and 
Jeremiah  and  Micah  and  Zechariah  and  Wilberforce 
and  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Philip  Doddridge  and 
Edward  PaA^son  and  John  Milton  and  Elizabeth  Fry 
and  Hannah  More  and  Charlotte  Elizabeth,  and  all 
the  other  kings  and  queens  of  heaven.  O  my  soul, 
what  a  companionship ! 

A  palace  means  splendbr  of  banquet.  There  will 
be  no  common  ware  on  that  table.  There  will  be  no 
unskilled  musicians  at  that  entertainment.  There 
will  be  no  scanty  supply  of  fruit  or  beverage.  There 
have  been  banquets  spread  that  cost  a  million  of  dol- 
lars each;  but  who  can  tell  the  untold  wealth  of  that 
banquet?  I  do  not  know  whether  John's  description 
of  it  is  literal  or  figurative;  I  cannot  prove  it.  I  do 
not  know  but  that  it  may  be  literal.  I  do  not  know 
but  that  there  may  be  real  fruits  plucked  from  the  tree 
of  life.  I  do  not  know  but  that  Christ  referred  to  the 
real  juice  of  the  grape  when  he  said  that  we  should 
drink  new  wine  in  our  Father's  kingdom.  I  do  not 
say  it  is  so;  but  I  have  as  much  right  for  thinking  it 
is  so  as  you  have  for  thinking  the  other  way.  At  any 
rate,  it  will  be  a  glorious  banquet.  Hark!  the  chariots 
rumbling  in  the  distance.  I  really  believe  the  guests 
are  coming  now.  The  gate's  swing  open,  the  guests 
dismount,  the  palace  is  filling,  and  all  the  chalices, 
flashing  with  pearl  and  amethyst  and  carbuncle,  are 
lifted  to  the  lips  of  the  myriad  banqueters,  while 
standing  in  robes  of  snowy  white  they  drink  to  the 
honor  of  our  Glorious  King!  "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  that  is 
too  grand  a  place  for  me."  No,  it  is  not.  If  a  spider, 
according  to  the  text,  could  crawl  up  on  the  walls  of 
Solomon's  palace,  shall  not  our  poor  souls,  through 
the  blood  of  Christ,  mount  up  from  the  depths  of  sin 

350  VOL.  XI. 


spiders  in  Palaces 

and  shame,  and  finally  reach  the  palace  of  the  Eternal 
King?  "  Where  sin  abounded  grace  shall  much  more 
abound,  that  whereas  sin  reigned  unto  death,  even  so 
may  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

Years  ago,  with  lanterns  and  torches  and  guide, 
we  went  down  in  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky. 
You  may  walk  fourteen  miles  and  see  no  sunlight.  It 
is  a  stupendous  place.  In  some  places  the  roof  of 
the  cave  one  hundred  feet  high.  The  grottoes  filled 
with  grotesque  echoes.  Cascades  falling  from  invisible 
height  to  invisible  depth.  Stalagmites  rising  up  from 
the  floor  of  the  cave,  stalactites  descending  from  the 
roof  of  the  cave,  joining  each  other  and  making  a 
pillar  of  the  Almighty's  sculpturing.  There  are  ro- 
settes of  amethyst  in  halls  of  gypsum.  As  the  guide 
carries  the  lantern  ahead  of  you,  the  shadows  have 
an  appearance  supernatural  and  spectral.  The  dark- 
ness is  fearful.  Two  people  getting  lost  from  their 
guide  only  for  a  few  hours,  years  ago,  were  demented, 
and  for  days  sat  in  their  insanity.  You  feel  like  hold- 
ing your  breath,  as  you  walk  across  the  bridges  that 
seem  to  span  the  bottomless  abyss.  The  guide  throws 
his  calcium  light  down  into  the  caverns,  and  the  light 
rolls  and  tosses  from  rock  to  rock  and  from  depth  to 
depth,  making  at  every  plunge  a  new  revelation  of  the 
awful  power  that  could  have  made  such  a  place  as  that. 
A  sense  of  suffocation  comes  upon  you,  as  you  think 
that  you  are  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  a  straight 
line  from  the  sunlit  surface  of  the  earth.  The  guide 
after  a  while  takes  you  into  what  is  called  the  "  star 
chamber  "  and  he  says  to  you,  "  Sit  here,"  and  then 
he  takes  the  lantern  and  goes  down  under  the  rocks, 
and  it  gets  darker  and  darker,  until  the  night  is  so 
thick  that  the  hand,  an  inch  from  the  eye,  is  invisible. 
And  then,  by  kindling  one  of  the  lanterns  and  placing 
VOL.  XI,  251 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

it  in  a  cleft  in  the  rock,  there  is  a  reflection  cast  on 
the  dome  of  the  cave  and  there  are  stars  coming  out  in 
constellation  —  a  brilliant  night  heaven  —  and  you 
involuntarily  exclaim  "  Beautiful !  Beautiful ! "  Then 
he  takes  the  lantern  down  in  the  other  depths  of  the 
cavern  and  wanders  on  and  on,  until  he  comes  up 
from  behind  the  rocks  gradually,  and  it  seems  like  the 
dawn  of  morning,  and  it  grows  brighter  and  brighter. 
The  guide  is  a  skilled  ventriloquist,  and  he  imitates 
the  voices  of  the  morning.  Soon  the  gloom  is  all 
gone  and  you  stand  congratulating  yourself  over  the 
wonderful  spectacle.  Well,  there  are  a  great  many 
people  who  look  down  into  the  grave  as  a  vast  cav- 
ern. They  think  it  is  one  thousand  miles  subterra- 
neous, and  all  the  echoes  seem  to  be  the  voices  of  de- 
spair, and  the  cascades  seem  to  be  the  falling  tears 
that  always  fall,  and  the  gloom  of  earth  seems  coming 
up  in  stalagmites,  making  pillars  of  indescribable  hor- 
ror. The  grave  is  no  such  place  as  that  to  me,  thank 
God!  Our  Divine  Guide  takes  us  down  into  the  cav- 
ern, and  we  have  the  lamp  at  our  feet  and  the  light  to 
our  path,  and  all  the  echoes  in  the  rifts  of  the  rocks  are 
anthems,  and  all  the  falling  waters  are  fountains  of  sal- 
vation, and  after  a  while  we  look  up  and  behold  the 
cavern  of  the  tomb  has  become  a  King's  star  chamber. 
And  while  we  are  looking  at  the  pomp  of  it,  and  ever- 
lasting morning  begins  to  rise,  and  all  the  tears  of 
the  earth  begin  to  crystallize  into  stalagmites  rising 
up  in  a  pillar  on  the  one  side,  and  all  the  glories  of 
heaven  seem  to  be  descending  in  a  stalactite,  making 
a  pillar  on  the  other  side,  and  you  push  against  the 
gate  that  swings  between  the  two  pillars,  and  as  that 
gate  flashes  open,  you  find  it  is  one  of  the  twelve  gates 
which  are  twelve  pearls.  Blessed  be  God  that  through 
this  Gospel  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  the  sepulcher  has 

252  VOL.  XI. 


spiders  in  Palaces 

become  the  illuminated  star  chamber  of  the  King.  Oh, 
the  palaces,  the  eternal  palaces,  the  King's  palaces! 

In  the  far  East  there  is  a  bird  called  the  huma, 
about  which  is  the  beautiful  superstition  that,  upon 
whatever  head  the  shadow  of  that  bird  rests,  upon  that 
head  there  shall  be  a  crown.  Oh,  thou  Dove  of  the 
Spirit,  floating  above  us,  let  the  shadow  of  thy  wing 
fall  upon  this  congregation,  that  each  at  last  in  heaven 
may  upon  his  head  wear  a  crown !  a  crown !  and  hold 
in  his  right  hand  a  star!  a  star! 


VOL.  XI.  aS3 


A  MOTHERLY  GOD 

Isa.,  66:  13:    "  As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will 
I  comfort  you." 


A  MOTHERLY  GOD 

Isa.,  66:  13:    "  As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will 
I  comfort  you." 

The  Bible  is  a  warm  letter  of  aflfection  from  a  parent 
to  a  child,  and  yet  there  are  many  who  see  chiefly  the 
severer  passages.  As  there  may  be  fifty  or  sixty  nights 
of  gentle  dew  in  one  summer  that  will  not  cause  as 
much  remark  as  one  hail-storm  of  half  an  hour,  so 
there  are  those  who  are  more  struck  by  those  pas- 
sages of  the  Bible  that  utter  the  indignation  of  God 
than  by  those  that  express  his  affection.  There  may 
come  to  a  household  twenty  or  fifty  letters  of  affection 
during  the  year,  and  they  will  not  make  as  much  ex- 
citement in  that  home  as  one  sheriff's  writ;  and  so 
there  are  people  who  are  more  attentive  to  those  pas- 
sages which  declare  the  wrath  of  God  than  to  those 
which  assure  his  mercy  and  his  favor.  God  is  a  Lion, 
John  says  in  the  Book  of  Revelation.  God  is  a 
Breaker,  Micah  announces  in  his  prophecy.  God  is  a 
Rock.  God  is  a  King.  But  hear  also  that  God  is 
Love.  A  father  and  his  child  are  walking  out  in  the 
fields  on  a  summer's  day,  and  there  comes  up  a 
thunder-storm.  A  flash  of  lightning  startles  the  child, 
and  the  father  says,  "  My  dear,  that  is  God's  eye." 
There  comes  a  peal  of  thunder,  and  the  father  says, 
"  My  dear,  that  is  God's  voice."  But  the  clouds  go 
off  the  sky,  and  the  storm  is  gone,  and  light  floods  the 
heavens  and  floods  the  landscape,  and  the  father  for- 
gets to  say,  "  That  is  God's  smile." 

I  bring  you  a  text  which  bends  with  great  gentle- 
ness and  love  over  all  who  are  prostrate  in  sin  and 
VOL.  XI.  257 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

trouble.  It  lights  up  with  compassion.  It  melts  with 
tenderness.  It  breathes  upon  us  the  hush  of  an  eternal 
lullaby,  for  it  declares  that  God  is  our  Mother.  "  As 
one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort 
you." 

I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that  God  has  a  mother's 
simplicity  of  instruction.  A  father  does  not  know 
how  to  teach  a  child  the  ABC.  Men  are  not  skil- 
ful in  the  primary  department;  but  a  mother  has  so 
much  patience  that  she  will  tell  a  child  for  the  hun- 
dredth time  the  difference  between  F  and  G  and  be- 
tween I  and  J.  Sometimes  it  is  by  blocks;  some- 
times by  the  worsted-work;  sometimes  by  the  slate; 
sometimes  by  the  book.  She  thus  teaches  the  child, 
and  has  no  awkwardness  of  condescension  in  so 
doing.  So  God,  with  the  mother,  stoops  down  to 
our  infantile  minds.  Though  we  are  told  a  thing  a 
thousand  times,  and  we  do  not  understand  it,  our 
heavenly  Mother  goes  on,  line  upon  line,  precept  upon 
precept,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little.  God  has  been 
teaching  some  of  us  thirty  years,  and  some  of  us  sixty 
years,  one  word  of  one  syllable,  and  we  do  not  know 
it  yet  —  f-a-i-t-h,  faith.  When  we  come  to  that  word 
we  stumble,  we  halt,  we  lose  our  place,  we  pronounce 
it  wrong.  Still,  God's  patience  is  not  exhausted. 
God,  our  Mother,  puts  us  in  the  school  of  prosperity, 
and  the  letters  are  in  sunshine,  but  we  cannot  spell 
them.  God  puts  us  in  the  school  of  adversity,  and 
the  letters  are  black,  but  we  cannot  spell  them.  If 
God  were  merely  a  king,  he  would  punish  us;  if  he 
were  simply  a  father,  he  would  whip  us ;  but  God  is  a 
mother,  and  so  we  are  borne  with  and  helped  all  the 
way  through. 

A  mother  teaches  her  child  chiefly  by  pictures. 
If  she  wants  to  set  forth  to  her  child  the  hideousness 
of  a  quarrelsome  spirit,  instead  of  giving  a  lecture  upon 

258  VOL.  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

that  subject,  she  turns  over  a  leaf  and  shows  the  child 
two  boys  in  a  wrangle,  and  says,  "  Does  not  that  look 
horrible?  "  If  she  wants  to  teach  her  child  the  awful- 
ness  of  war,  she  turns  over  the  picture-book  and  shows 
the  war-charger,  the  headless  trunks  of  butchered 
men,  the  wild,  agonizing,  bloodshot  eye  of  battle  roll- 
ing under  lids  of  flame,  and  she  says,  "  That  is  war! " 
The  child  understands  it.  In  a  great  many  books  the 
best  part  is  the  pictures.  The  style  may  be  insipid, 
the  type  poor,  but  a  picture  always  attracts  a  child's 
attention.  Now  God,  our  Mother,  teaches  us  almost 
everything  by  pictures.  Is  the  divine  goodness  to  be 
set  forth?  How  does  God,  our  Mother,  teach  us?  By 
an  autumnal  picture.  The  barns  are  full.  The  wheat- 
stacks  are  rounded.  The  cattle  are  chewing  the  cud 
lazily  in  the  sun.  The  orchards  are  dropping  the  ripe 
pippins  into  the  lap  of  the  farmer.  The  natural  world, 
that  has  been  busy  all  summer,  seems  now  to  be  rest- 
ing in  great  abundance.  We  look  at  the  picture  and 
say,  "  Thou  crownest  the  year  with  thy  goodness, 
and  thy  paths  drop  fatness."  Our  family  comes  around 
the  breakfast-table.  It  has  been  a  very  cold  night,  but 
the  children  are  all  bright,  because  they  slept  under 
thick  coverlets,  and  they  are  now  in  the  warm  blast 
of  the  open  register,  and  their  appetites  make  luxuries 
out  of  the  plainest  fare,  and  we  look  at  the  picture  and 
say,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul! " 

God  wishes  to  set  forth  the  fact  that  in  the  Judg- 
ment the  good  will  be  divided  from  the  wicked.  How 
is  it  done?  By  a  picture;  by  a  parable  —  a  fishing 
scene.  A  group  of  hardy  men,  long-bearded,  garbed 
for  standing  to  the  waist  in  water;  sleeves  rolled  up. 
Long  oar,  sun-gilt;  boat  battered  as  though  it  had 
been  a  playmate  of  the  storm.  A  full  net,  thumping 
about  with  the  fish,  which  have  just  discovered  their 
captivity,  the  worthless  moss-bunkers  and  the  useful 
VOL.  xr.  259 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

flounders  all  in  the  same  net.  The  fisherman  puts  his 
hand  down  amid  the  squirming  fins,  takes  out  the 
moss-bunkers  and  throws  them  into  the  water,  and 
gathers  the  good  fish  into  the  pail.  So,  says  Christ, 
it  shall  be  at  the  end  of  the  world.  The  bad  he  will 
cast  away,  and  the  good  he  will  keep.  Another  pic- 
ture! 

God,  our  Mother,  wanted  to  set  forth  the  duty  of 
neighborly  love,  and  it  is  done  by  a  picture.  A  human 
form,  a  mere  mass  of  wounds,  on  the  road  to  Jericho. 
A  traveler  has  been  fighting  a  robber.  The  robber 
stabbed  him  and  knocked  him  down.  Two  ministers 
come  along.  They  look  at  the  poor  fellow,  but  do  not 
help  him.  A  traveler  comes  along  —  a  Samaritan.  He 
says  "  Whoa "  to  the  beast  he  is  riding,  and  dis- 
mounts. He  examines  the  wounds;  he  takes  out  some 
wine,  and  with  it  washes  the  wounds,  and  then  he  takes 
some  oil,  and  puts  that  in  to  make  the  wounds  stop 
smarting;  and  then  he  tears  off  a  piece  of  his  own 
garment  for  a  bandage.  Then  he  helps  the  wounded 
man  upon  the  beast,  and  walks  by  the  side,  holding 
him  on  until  they  come  to  a  tavern.  He  says  to  the 
landlord,  "  Here  is  money  to  pay  the  man's  board  for 
two  days;  take  care  of  him;  if  it  costs  anything  more, 
charge  it  to  me,  and  I  will  pay  it."  Picture  —  The 
Good  Samaritan,  or  Who  is  your  Neighbor? 

Does  God,  our  Mother,  want  to  set  forth  what  a 
foolish  thing  it  is  to  go  away  from  the  right,  and  how 
glad  divine  mercy  is  to  take  back  the  wanderer?  How 
is  it  done?  By  a  picture.  A  good  father.  Large  farm, 
with  fat  sheep  and  oxen.  Fine  house,  with  exquisite 
wardrobe.  Discontented  boy.  Goes  away.  Sharpers 
fleece  him.  Feeds  hogs.  Gets  homesick.  Starts  back. 
Sees  an  old  man  running.  It  is  father!  The  hand,  torn 
of  the  husks,  gets  a  ring.  The  foot,  inflamed  and  bleed- 
ing,   gets    a    sandal.      The    bare    shoulder,    showing 

260  VOL.  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

through  the  tatters,  gets  a  robe.  The  stomach,  gnaW' 
ing  itself  with  hunger,  gets  a  full  platter  smoking  with 
meat.  The  father  cannot  eat  for  looking  at  the  re- 
turned wanderer.  Tears  running  down  the  face  until 
they  come  to  a  smile  —  the  night  dew  melting  into  the 
morning.  No  work  on  the  farm  that  day;  for  when  a 
bad  boy  repents,  and  comes  back,  promising  to  do 
better,  God  knows  that  is  enough  for  one  day.  "  And 
they  began  to  be  merry."  Picture — Prodigal  Son  Re- 
turned from  the  Wilderness.  So  God,  our  Mother, 
teaches  us  everything  by  pictures.  The  sinner  is  a  lost 
sheep.  Jesus  is  the  Bridegroom.  The  useless  man  a 
barren  fig-tree.  The  Gospel  is  a  great  supper.  Satan, 
a  sower  of  tares.  Truth,  a  mustard-seed.  That  which 
we  could  not  have  understood  in  the  abstract  statement, 
God,  our  Mother,  presents  to  us  in  this  Bible-album 
of  pictures,  God  engraved.  "  Is  not  the  divine  Ma- 
ternity ever  thus  teachmg  us?  " 

I  remark  again,  that  God  has  a  mother's  favoritism. 
A  father  sometimes  shows  a  sort  of  favoritism.  Here 
is  a  boy  —  strong,  well,  of  high  forehead  and  quick 
intellect.  The  father  says,  "  I  will  take  that  boy  into 
my  firm  yet; "  or,  "  I  will  give  him  the  very  best  edu- 
cation." There  are  instances  where,  for  the  culture 
of  the  one  boy,  all  the  others  have  been  robbed.  A 
sad  favoritism;  but  that  is  not  the  mother's  favorite. 
I  will  tell  you  her  favorite.  There  is  a  child  who  at 
two  years  of  age  had  a  fall.  He  has  never  got  over 
it.  The  scarlet  fever  muffled  his  hearing.  He  is  not 
what  he  once  was.  That  child  has  caused  the  mother 
more  anxious  nights  than  all  the  other  children.  If 
he  coughs  in  the  night,  she  springs  out  of  a  sound  sleep 
and  goes  to  him.  The  last  thing  she  does  when  going 
out  of  the  house  is  to  give  a  charge  in  regard  to  him. 
The  first  thing  on  coming  in  is  to  ask  about  him. 
Why,  the  children  of  the  family  all  know  that  he  is  the 
VOL.  XI.  261 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

favorite,  and  say,  "  Mother,  you  let  him  do  just  as  he 
pleases,  and  you  give  him  a  great  many  things  which 
you  do  not  give  us.  He  is  your  favorite."  The  mother 
smiles;  she  knows  it  is  so. 

So  he  ought  to  be;  for  if  there  is  any  one  in  the 
world  who  needs  sympathy  more  than  another,  it  is  an 
invalid  child,  weary  on  the  first  mile  of  life's  journey; 
carrying  an  aching  head,  a  weak  side,  an  irritated  lung. 
.So  the  mother  ought  to  make  him  a  favorite.  God,  our 
Mother,  has  favorites.  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  he 
chasteneth."  That  is,  one  whom  he  especially  loves 
he  chasteneth.  God  loves  us  all ;  but  is  there  one  weak 
and  sick  and  sore  and  wounded  and  suffering  and 
faint?  That  is  the  one  who  Hes  nearest  and  more  per- 
petually on  the  great,  loving  heart  of  God.  Why,  it 
never  coughs  but  our  Mother,  God,  hears  it.  It  never 
stirs  a  weary  limb  in  the  bed  but  our  Mother,  God, 
knows  of  it.  There  is  no  such  a  watcher  as  God.  The 
best  nurse  may  be  overborne  by  fatigue,  and  fall  asleep 
in  the  chair;  but  God,  our  Mother,  after  being  up  a 
year  of  nights  with  a  suffering  child,  never  slumbers 
nor  sleeps. 

"Oh!"  says  one,  "I  cannot  understand  all  that 
about  affliction."  A  refiner  of  silver  once  explained 
it  to  a  Christian  lady.  "  I  put  the  silver  in  the  fire,  and 
I  keep  refining  it  and  trying  it  till  I  can  see  my  face 
in  it,  and  then  I  take  it  out."  Just  so  it  is  that  God 
keeps  his  dear  children  in  the  furnace  till  the  divine 
image  may  be  seen  in  them;  then  they  are  taken  out 
of  the  fire.  "  Well,"  says  some  one,  "  if  that  is  the 
way  that  God  treats  his  favorites,  I  do  not  want  to  be 
a  favorite."  There  is  a  barren  field  on  an  autumn 
day  just  wanting  to  be  let  alone.  There  is  a  bang  at 
the  bars,  and  a  rattle  of  whiffletrees  and  devices. 
The  field  says,  "  What  is  the  farmer  going  to  do  with 
me  now?  "    The  farmer  puts  the  plow  in  the  ground, 

262  VOL,  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

shouts  to  the  horses,  the  coulter  goes  tearing  through 
the  sod,  and  the  furrow  reaches  from  fence  to  fence. 
Next  day  there  is  a  bang  at  the  bars,  and  a  rattle  of 
whiflfletrees  again.  The  field  says,  "  I  wonder  what 
the  farmer  is  going  to  do  now."  The  farmer  hitches 
the  horses  to  the  harrow,  and  it  goes  bounding  and 
tearing  across  the  field.  Next  day  there  is  a  rattle  at 
the  bars  again,  and  the  field  says,  "  What  is  the  farmer 
going  to  do  now?  "  He  walks  heavily  across  the  field, 
scattering  seed  as  he  walks.  After  a  while  a  cloud 
comes.  The  field  says,  "What,  more  trouble!"  It 
begins  to  rain.  After  a  while  the  wind  changes  to  the 
northeast,  and  it  begins  to  snow.  Says  the  field,  "  Is 
it  not  enough  that  I  have  been  torn,  and  trampled 
upon,  and  drowned?  Must  I  now  be  snowed  under?  " 
After  a  while.  Spring  comes  out  of  the  gates  of  the 
south,  and  warmth  and  gladness  come  with  it.  A 
green  scarf  bandages  the  gash  of  the  wheat-field,  and 
the  July  morning  drops  a  crown  of  gold  on  the  head 
of  the  grain.  "Oh!"  says  the  field,  "now  I  know 
the  use  of  the  plow,  of  the  harrow,  of  the  heavy  foot, 
of  the  shower,  and  of  the  snow-storm.  It  is  well  enough 
to  be  trodden  and  trampled  and  drowned  and  snowed 
under,  if  in  the  end  I  can  yield  such  a  glorious  har- 
vest." "  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing 
precious  seed,  shall  doubtless  come  again  with  rejoic- 
ing, bringing  his  sheaves  with  him." 

When  I  see  God  especially  busy  in  troubling  and 
trying  a  Christian,  I  know  that  out  of  that  Christian's 
character  there  is  to  come  especial  good.  A  quarry- 
man  goes  down  into  the  excavation,  and  with  strong- 
handed  machinery  bores  into  the  rock.  The  rock  says, 
"  What  do  you  do  that  for?  "  He  puts  powder  in;  he 
lights  a  fuse.  There  is  a  thundering  crash.  The  rock 
says,  "  Why,  the  whole  mountain  is  going  to  pieces." 
The  crowbar  is  plunged;  the  rock  is  dragged  out. 
VOL.  XI.  263 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

After  a  while  it  is  taken  into  the  artist's  studio.  It 
says,  "  Well,  now  I  have  got  to  a  good,  warm,  com- 
fortable place  at  last."  But  the  sculptor  takes  the 
chisel  and  mallet,  and  he  digs  for  the  eyes,  and  he 
cuts  for  the  mouth,  and  he  bores  for  the  ear,  and  he 
rubs  it  with  sand-paper,  until  the  rock  says,  "  When 
will  this  torture  be  ended?"  A  sheet  is  thrown  over 
it.  It  stands  in  darkness.  After  a  while  it  is  taken 
out.  The  covering  is  removed.  It  stands  in  the  sun- 
light, in  the  presence  of  ten  thousand  applauding  peo- 
ple, as  they  greet  the  statue  of  the  poet  or  the  prince 
or  the  conqueror.  "  Ah !  "  says  the  stone,  "  now  I 
understand  it.  I  am  a  great  deal  better  ofif  now  stand- 
ing as  a  statue  of  a  conqueror  than  I  would  have  been 
down  in  the  quarry."  So  God  finds  a  man  down  in 
the  quarry  of  ignorance  and  sin.  How  to  get  him  up? 
He  must  be  bored  and  blasted  and  chiseled  and 
scoured,  and  stand  sometimes  in  the  darkness.  But 
after  a  while  the  mantle  of  affliction  will  fall  ofT,  and 
his  soul  will  be  greeted  by  the  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand,  and  the  thousands  of  thousands,  as 
more  than  the  conqueror.  Oh,  my  friends,  God,  our 
Mother,  is  just  as  kind  in  our  afiflictions  as  in  our 
prosperities.  God  never  touches  us  but  for  our  good. 
If  a  field  clean  and  cultured  is  better  off  than  a  barren 
field,  and  if  a  stone  that  has  became  a  statue  is  better 
off  than  the  marble  in  the  quarry,  then  that  soul  that 
God  chastens  may  be  his  favorite.  Oh,  the  rocking 
of  the  soul  is  not  the  rocking  of  an  earthquake,  but 
the  rocking  of  God's  cradle.  "  As  one  whom  his 
mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you."  I  have 
been  told  that  the  pearl  in  an  oyster  is  merely  the 
result  of  a  wound,  or  a  sickness  inflicted  upon  it,  and 
I  do  not  know  but  that  the  brightest  gems  of  heaven 
will  be  found  to  have  been  the  wounds  of  earth 
kindled  into  the  jeweled  brightness  of  eternal  glory. 

264  VOL.  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

I  remark  that  God  has  a  mother's  capacity  for  at- 
tending to  little  hurts.  The  father  is  shocked  at  the 
broken  bone  of  the  child,  or  at  the  sickness  that  sets 
the  cradle  on  fire  with  fever,  but  it  takes  the  mother 
to  sympathize  with  all  the  little  ailments  and  bruises 
of  the  child.  If  the  child  have  a  splinter  in  its  hand, 
it  wants  the  mother  to  take  it  out,  and  not  the  father. 
The  father  says,  "  Oh,  that  is  nothing,"  but  the  mother 
knows  it  is  something,  and  that  a  little  hurt  sometimes 
is  to  a  child  a  very  great  hurt.  So  with  God,  our 
Mother:  all  our  annoyances  are  important  enough  to 
look  at  and  sympathize  with.  Nothing  with  God  is 
something.  There  are  no  ciphers  in  God's  arithmetic. 
And  if  we  were  only  good  enough  of  sight,  we  could 
see  as  much  through  a  miscroscope  as  through  a  tele- 
scope. Those  things  that  may  be  impalpable  and  in- 
finitesimal to  us,  may  be  pronounced  and  infinite  to 
God.  A  mathematical  point  is  defined  as  having  no 
parts,  no  magnitude.  It  is  so  small  you  cannot 
imagine  it,  and  yet  a  mathematical  point  may  be  a 
starting-point  for  a  great  eternity.  God's  surveyors 
carry  a  very  long  chain.  A  scale  must  be  very  deli- 
cate that  can  weigh  a  grain,  but  God's  scale  is  so 
delicate  that  he  can  weigh  with  it  that  which  is  so 
small  that  a  grain  is  a  million  times  heavier.  When 
John  Kitto,  a  poor  boy  on  a  back  street  of  Plymouth, 
cut  his  foot  with  a  piece  of  glass,  God  bound  it  up  so 
successfully  that  Kitto  became  the  great  Christian 
geographer,  and  a  commentator  known  among  all  na- 
tions. So  every  wound  of  the  soul,  however  insignifi- 
cant, God  is  willing  to  bind  up.  As  at  the  first  cry  of 
the  child  the  mother  rushes  to  kiss  the  wound,  so 
God,  our  Mother,  takes  the  smallest  wound  of  the 
hcrt,  and  presses  it  to  the  lips  of  divine  sympathy. 
"  As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  com- 
fort you." 

I  remark  further  that  God  has  a  mother's  patience 
VQL.  XI,  26s 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

with  the  erring.  If  one  does  wrong,  first  his  associates 
in  life  cast  him  oflf;  if  he  goes  on  in  the  wrong  way, 
his  business  partner  casts  him  off;  if  he  goes  on,  his 
best  friends  cast  him  off  —  his  father  casts  him  oflf. 
But  after  all  others  have  cast  him  oflf,  where  does  he 
go?  Who  holds  no  grudge,  and  forgives  the  last  time 
as  well  as  the  first?  Who  sits  by  the  murderer's  coun- 
sel all  through  the  long  trial?  Who  tarries  the  longest 
at  the  windows  of  a  culprit's  cell?  Who,  when  all 
others  think  ill  of  a  man,  keeps  on  thinking  well  of 
him?  It  is  his  mother.  God  bless  her  gray  hairs, 
if  she  be  still  alive;  and  bless  her  grave,  if  she  be  gone! 
And  bless  the  rocking-chair  in  which  she  used  to  sit, 
and  bless  the  cradle  that  she  used  to  rock,  and  bless 
the  Bible  she  used  to  read!  So  God,  our  Mother,  has 
patience  for  all  the  erring.  After  everybody  else  has 
cast  a  man  oflf,  God,  our  Mother,  comes  to  the  rescue. 
God  leaps  to  take  charge  of  a  bad  case.  After  all  the 
other  doctors  have  got  through,  the  heavenly  Phy- 
sician comes  in. 

Human  sympathy  at  such  a  time  does  not  amount 
to  much.  Even  the  sympathy  of  the  Church,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  often  does  not  amount  to  much.  I  have 
seen  the  most  harsh  and  bitter  treatment  on  the  part 
of  those  who  professed  faith  in  Christ  toward  those 
who  were  wavering  and  erring.  They  tried  on  the 
wanderer  sarcasm  and  billingsgate  and  caricature, 
and  they  tried  tittle-tattle.  There  was  one  thing  they 
did  not  try,  and  that  was  forgiveness.  A  soldier  in 
England  was  brought  by  a  sergeant  to  the  colonel. 
"  What,"  says  the  colonel,  "  bringing  this  man  here 
again !  We  have  tried  everything  with  him."  "  Oh, 
no,"  says  the  sergeant,  "  there  is  one  thing  you  have 
not  tried.  I  would  like  you  to  try  that."  "  What  is 
that  ?"  said  the  colonel.    Said  the  man, "  Forgiveness." 

266  VOL.  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

The  case  had  not  gone  so  far  but  that  it  might  take 
that  turn,  and  so  the  colonel  said,  "  Well,  young  man, 
you  have  done  so  and  so.  What  is  your  excuse?  "  "  I 
have  no  excuse,  but  I  am  very  sorry,"  said  the  man. 
"  We  have  made  up  our  minds  to  forgive  you,"  said 
the  colonel.  The  tears  started.  He  had  never  once 
been  accosted  in  that  way  before.  His  life  was  re- 
formed, and  that  was  the  starting-point  for  a  positively 
Christian  life.  Oh,  Church  of  God,  quit  your  sarcasm 
when  a  man  falls!  Quit  your  irony,  quit  your  tittle- 
tattle,  and  try  forgiveness.  God,  your  Mother,  tries 
it  all  the  time.  A  man's  sin  may  be  like  a  continent, 
but  God's  forgiveness  is  like  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
oceans,  bounding  it  on  both  sides. 

The  Bible  often  talks  about  God's  hand.  I  wonder 
how  it  looks.  You  remember  distinctly  how  your 
mother's  hand  looked,  though  thirty  years  ago  it 
withered  away.  It  was  different  from  your  father's 
hand.  When  you  were  to  be  chastised,  you  had  rather 
have  mother  punish  you  than  father.  It  did  not  hurt 
so  much.  And  father's  hand  was  different  from 
mother's,  partly  because  it  had  outdoor  toil,  and  partly 
because  God  intended  it  to  be  different.  The  knuckles 
were  more  firmly  set,  and  the  palm  was  calloused.  But 
mother's  hand  was  more  delicate.  There  were  blue 
veins  running  through  the  back  of  it.  Though  the 
fingers,  some  of  them,  were  pricked  with  a  needle,  the 
palm  of  it  was  soft.  Oh!  it  was  very  soft.  Was  there 
ever  any  poultice  like  that  to  take  pain  out  of  a  wound? 
So  God's  hand  is  a  mother's  hand.  What  it  touches 
it  heals.  If  it  smite  you,  it  does  not  hurt  as  if  it  were 
another  hand.  Oh,  you  poor  wandering  soul  in  sin, 
it  is  not  a  bailiff's  hand  that  seizes  you  to-day.  It  is 
not  a  hard  hand.  It  is  not  an  unsympathetic  hand.  It 
is  not  a  cold  hand.  It  is  not  an  enemy's  hand.  No. 
VOL.  XI.  267 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

It  is  a  gentle  hand,  a  loving  hand,  a  sympathetic  hand, 
a  soft  hand,  a  mother's  hand.  "  As  one  whom  his 
mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you." 

I  want  to  say,  finally,  that  God  has  a  mother's  way 
of  putting  a  child  to  sleep.  You  know  there  is  no 
cradle-song  like  a  mother's.  After  the  excitement  of 
the  evening  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  the  child  to 
sleep.  If  the  rocking-chair  stop  a  moment,  the  eyes 
are  wide  open;  but  the  mother's  patience  and  the 
mother's  soothing  manner  keep  on  until,  after  a  while, 
the  angel  of  slumber  puts  his  wing  over  the  pillow. 
Well,  the  time  will  come  when  we  will  be  wanting  to 
be  put  to  sleep.  The  day  of  our  life  will  be  done,  and 
the  shadows  of  the  night  of  death  will  be  gathering 
around  us.  Then  we  want  God  to  soothe  us,  to  hush 
us  to  sleep.  Let  the  music  at  our  going  not  be  the 
dirge  of  the  organ,  or  the  knell  of  the  church-tower, 
or  the  drumming  of  a  "  dead  march,"  but  let  it  be  the 
hush  of  a  mother's  lullaby.  Oh !  the  cradle  of  the  grave 
will  be  soft  with  the  pillow  of  all  the  promises.  When 
we  are  being  rocked  into  that  last  slumber,  I  want 
this  to  be  the  cradle-song:  "  As  one  whom  a  mother 
comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you." 

Asleep  in  Jesus!    Far  from  thee 
Thy  kindred  and  their  graves  may  be; 
But  thine  is  still  a  blessed  sleep, 
From  which  none  ever  wake  to  weep. 

A  Scotchman  was  dying.  His  daughter  Nellie  sat 
by  the  bedside.  It  was  Sunday  evening,  and  the  bell 
of  the  church  was  ringing,  calling  the  people  to  church. 
The  good  old  man,  in  his  dying  dream,  thought  that 
he  was  on  the  way  to  church,  as  he  used  to  be  when 
he  went  in  the  sleigh  across  the  river ;  and  as  the  even- 
ing bell  struck  up,  in  his  dying  dream  he  thought  it 
was  the  call  to  church.     He  said,  "  Hark,  children, 

268  VOL.  XI. 


A  Motherly  God 

the  bells  are  ringing;  we  shall  be  late;  we  must  make 
the  mare  step  out  quick!  "  He  shivered,  and  then 
said,  "  Pull  the  buffalo  robe  up  closer,  my  lass !  It 
is  cold  crossing  the  river;  but  we  will  soon  be  there, 
Nellie,  we  will  soon  be  there ! "  And  he  smiled  and 
said,  "Just  there  now."  No  wonder  he  smiled.  The 
good  old  man  had  got  to  church.  Not  the  old  country 
church,  but  the  temple  in  the  skies.  Just  across  the 
river.  How  comfortably  did  God  hush  that  old  man 
to  sleep!  As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so 
God  comforted  him. 


VOL.  XI.  269 


GARRISON  DUTY 

Sam.,  30:  24:     "  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 


GARRISON  DUTY* 

I   Sam.,  30:  24:     "  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 

If  you  have  never  seen  an  army  change  quarters 
you  have  no  idea  of  the  amount  of  baggage  —  twenty 
loads,  fifty  loads,  a  hundred  loads  of  baggage.  David 
and  his  army  were  about  to  start  on  a  double-quick 
march  for  the  recovery  of  their  captured  families  from 
the  Amalekites.  So  they  left  by  the  brook  Besor  their 
blankets,  their  knapsacks,  their  baggage,  and  their 
carriages.  Who  shall  be  detailed  to  watch  this  stuff? 
There  are  sick  soldiers  and  wounded  soldiers  and  aged 
soldiers  who  are  not  able  to  go  on  this  swift  military 
expedition,  but  who  are  able  to  do  some  work,  and  so 
they  are  detailed  to  watch  the  baggage.  There  is 
many  a  soldier  who  is  not  strong  enough  to  march 
thirty  miles  in  a  day,  and  then  plunge  into  a  ten  hours' 
fight,  who  is  able  with  drawn  sword  lifted  against  his 
shoulder  to  pace  up  and  down  as  a  sentinel  to  keep 
off  an  enemy  who  might  put  the  torch  to  the  baggage. 
There  are  two  hundred  of  these  crippled  and  aged 
and  wounded  soldiers  detailed  to  watch  the  baggage. 
Some  of  them,  I  suppose,  had  bandages  across  the 
brow,  and  some  of  them  had  their  arms  in  slings,  and 
some  of  them  walked  on  crutches.  They  were  not 
cowards  shirking  duty.  They  had  fought  in  many  a 
fierce  battle  for  their  country  and  their  God.  They 
are  now  part  of  the  time  in  hospital,  and  part  of  the 
time  on  garrison  duty.    They  almost  cry  because  they 

*  First    preached    in    Brooklyn.      Afterward,    with    some 
changes,  in  City  Road,  London,  John  Wesley's  chapel. 
VOL.  XI.  273 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

cannot  go  with  the  other  troops  lo  the  front.  While 
these  sentinels  watch  the  baggage,  the  Lord  watches 
the  sentinels. 

There  is  quite  a  different  scene  being  enacted  in 
the  distance.  The  Amalekites,  having  ravaged  and 
ransacked  and  robbed  whole  countries,  are  celebrating 
their  success  in  a  roaring  carousal.  Some  of  them  are 
dancing  on  the  lawn  with  wonderful  gyration  of  heel 
and  toe,  and  some  of  them  are  examining  the  spoils 
of  victory  —  the  finger  rings  and  earrings,  the  neck- 
laces, the  wristlets,  the  head-bands  diamond  starred, 
and  the  coffers  with  coronets  and  cornelians  and 
pearls  and  sapphires  and  emeralds,  and  all  the  wealth 
of  plate  and  jewels  and  decanter  and  the  silver  and  the 
gold  banked  up  on  the  earth  in  princely  profusion,  and 
the  embroideries  and  the  robes  and  the  turbans  and 
the  cloaks  of  an  imperial  wardrobe.  The  banquet  has 
gone  on  until  the  banqueters  are  maudlin  and  weak 
and  stupid  and  indecent  and  loathsomely  drunk.  What 
a  time  it  is  now  for  David  and  his  men  to  swoop  on 
them.  So  the  English  lost  the  battle  of  Bannockburn 
because  the  night  before  they  were  in  wassail  and 
bibulous  celebration,  while  the  Scotch  were  in  prayer. 
So  the  Syrians  were  overthrown  in  their  carousal  by 
the  Israelites.  So  Chedorlaomer  and  his  army  were 
overthrown  in  their  carousal  by  Abraham  and  his 
men.  So  our  Northern  forces  were  defeated  in  a  battle 
because  one  of  the  commanders  was  drunk.  Now  is 
the  time  for  David  and  his  men  to  swoop  upon  these 
carousing  Amalekites.  Some  of  the  Amalekites  are 
hacked  to  pieces  on  the  spot,  some  of  them  are  just 
able  to  go  staggering  and  hiccoughing  off  the  field^ 
some  of  them  crawl  on  camels  and  speed  off  in  the 
distance. 

David  and  his  men  gather  together  the  wardrobes, 
the  jewels,  and  put  them  upon  the  backs  of  camels,  and 

274  VOL.  XI. 


Garrison  Duty 

into  wagons,  and  they  gather  together  the  sheep  and 
cattle  that  had  been  stolen,  and  start  back  toward  the 
garrison. 

Yonder  they  come!  yonder  they  come!  The  limp- 
ing men  of  the  garrison  come  out  and  greet  them  with 
cheer.  The  Bible  says  David  saluted  them.  That  is, 
he  asked  them  how  they  all  were.  "  How  is  your 
broken  arm  ?  "  "  How  is  your  fractured  jaw  ?  "  "  Has 
the  stiffened  limb  been  unlimbered?  "  "  Have  you  had 
another  chill?"  "Are  you  getting  better?"  He  sa- 
luted them. 

But  now  came  a  very  difficult  thing,  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  spoils  of  victory.  Drive  up  those  laden 
camels  now.  Who  shall  have  the  spoils?  Well,  some 
selfish  soul  suggests  that  these  treasures  ought  all 
to  belong  to  those  who  had  been  out  in  active  service. 
"  We  did  all  the  fighting,  while  these  men  stayed  at 
home  in  the  garrison,  and  we  ought  to  have  all  the 
treasures."  But  David  looked  into  the  worn  faces  of 
these  veterans  who  had  stayed  in  the  garrison,  and  he 
looked  around  and  saw  how  cleanly  everything  had 
been  kept,  and  he  saw  that  the  baggage  was  all  safe, 
and  he  knew  how  that  these  wounded  and  crippled 
men  would  gladly  enough  have  been  at  the  front  if 
they  had  been  able,  and  the  little  general  looks  up 
from  under  his  helmet  and  says :  "  No,  no ;  let  us  have 
fair  play ;  "  and  he  rushes  up  to  one  of  these  men  and 
he  says,  "  Hold  your  hands  together,"  and  the  hands 
are  held  together,  and  he  fills  them  with  silver.  And 
he  rushes  up  to  another  man  who  was  sitting  away 
back  and  had  no  idea  of  getting  any  of  the  spoils,  and 
throws  a  Babylonish  garment  over  him  and  fills  his 
hand  with  gold.  And  he  rushes  up  to  another  man 
who  had  lost  all  his  property  in  serving  God  and  his 
country  years  before,  and  he  drives  up  some  of  the 
cattle  and  some  of  the  sheep  that  they  had  brought 
VOL.  XI.  275 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

back  from  the  Amalekites,  and  he  gives  two  or  three 
of  the  cattle  and  three  or  four  of  the  sheep  to  this  poor 
man,  so  he  shall  always  be  fed  and  clothed.  He  sees 
a  man  so  emaciated  and  worn  out  and  sick  he  needs 
stimulants  and  he  gives  him  a  little  of  the  wine  that 
he  brought  from  the  Amalekites.  Yonder  is  a  man 
who  has  no  appetite  for  the  rough  rations  of  the  army, 
and  he  gives  him  a  rare  morsel  from  the  Amalekitish 
banquet,  and  the  two  hundred  crippled  and  maimed 
and  aged  soldiers  who  tarried  on  garrison  duty  get 
just  as  much  of  the  spoils  of  battle  as  any  of  the  two 
hundred  men  that  went  to  the  front.  "  As  his  part  is 
that  goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall  his  part  be 
that  tarrieth  by  the  stuflf." 

The  impression  is  abroad  that  the  Christian  re- 
wards are  for  those  who  do  conspicuous  service  in 
distinguished  places  —  great  martyrs,  great  patriots, 
great  preachers,  great  philanthropists.  But  my  text 
sets  forth  the  idea  that  there  is  just  as  much  reward 
for  a  man  who  stays  at  home  and  minds  his  own  busi- 
ness, and  who,  crippled  and  unable  to  go  forth  and 
lead  in  great  movements  and  in  the  high  places  of  the 
earth,  does  his  whole  duty  just  where  he  is.  Garrison 
duty  as  important  and  as  remunerative  as  service  at 
the  front.  "As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 

The  Earl  of  Kintore  said  to  me  on  an  English  rail- 
way :  "  Mr.  Talmage,  when  you  get  back  to  America 
I  want  you  to  preach  a  sermon  on  the  discharge  of 
ordinary  duty  in  ordinary  places,  and  then  send  me  a 
copy  of  it."  Afterward  an  English  clergyman  coming 
to  this  land  brought  from  the  Earl  of  Kintore  the  same 
message.  Alas!  that  before  I  got  ready  to  do  what 
he  asked  me  to  do,  the  good  Earl  of  Kintore  had  de- 
parted this  life.  But  that  man,  surrounded  by  all 
palatial  surroundings  and  in  a  distinguished  sphere, 

276  VOL.  XI. 


Garrison  Duty 

felt  sympathetic  with  those  who  had  ordinary  duties 
to  perform  in  ordinary  places  and  in  ordinary  ways. 
A  great  many  people  are  discouraged  when  they  hear 
the  story  of  Moses  and  of  Joshua  and  of  David  and  of 
Luther  and  of  John  Knox  and  of  Deborah  and  of 
Florence  Nightingale.  They  say :  "  Oh,  that  was 
all  good  and  right  for  them,  but  I  shall  never  be  called 
to  receive  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai,  I  shall  never  be 
called  to  command  the  sun  and  the  moon  to  stand  still, 
I  shall  never  be  called  to  slay  a  giant,  I  shall  never 
preach  on  Mars  Hill,  I  shall  never  defy  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  I  shall  never  be  called  to  make  a  queen 
tremble  for  her  crimes,  I  shall  never  preside  over  a 
hospital." 

There  are  women  who  say :  "  If  I  had  as  brilliant  a 
sphere  as  those  people  had,  I  should  be  as  brave  and 
as  grand;  but  my  business  is  to  get  the  children  off 
to  school  and  to  hunt  up  things  when  they  are  lost 
and  to  see  that  dinner  is  ready  and  to  keep  account 
of  the  household  expenses  and  to  hinder  the  children 
from  being  strangulated  by  the  whooping  cough,  and 
to  go  through  all  the  annoyances  and  vexations  of 
housekeeping.  Oh,  my  sphere  is  so  infinitesimal  and 
so  insignificant,  I  am  clear  discouraged."  Woman, 
God  places  you  on  garrison  duty,  and  your  reward 
will  be  just  as  great  as  that  of  Florence  Nightingale, 
who,  moving  so  often  night  by  night  with  a  light  in 
her  hand  through  the  hospitals,  was  called  by  the 
wounded  the  "  lady  of  the  lamp."  Your  reward  will 
be  just  as  great  as  that  of  Mrss  Hertzog,  who  built 
and  endowed  theological  seminary  buildings.  Your 
reward  will  be  just  as  great  as  that  of  Hannah  More, 
who  by  her  excellent  books  won  for  her  admirers  Gar- 
rick  and  Edmund  Burke  and  Joshua  Reynolds.  Re- 
wards are  not  to  be  g^ven  according  to  the  amount  of 
noise  you  make  in  the  world, nor  even  according  to  the 
VOL.  XI.  277 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

amount  of  good  you  do,  but  according  to  whether  you 
work  to  your  full  capacity,  according  to  whether  or 
not  you  do  your  full  duty  in  the  sphere  where  God  has 
placed  you. 

Suppose  you  give  to  two  of  your  children  errands 
and  they  are  to  go  off  to  make  purchases,  and  to  one 
you  give  one  dollar  and  to  the  other  you  give  twenty 
dollars.  Do  you  reward  the  boy  to  whom  you  gave 
twenty  dollars  for  purchasing  more  with  that  amount 
of  money  than  the  other  boy  purchased  with  one 
dollar?  Of  course  not.  If  God  give  wealth  or  social 
position  or  eloquence  or  twenty  times  the  faculty  to 
a  man  that  he  gives  to  the  ordinary  men,  is  he  going 
to  give  to  the  favored  man  a  reward  because  he  has 
more  power  and  more  influence  ?  Oh,  no  !  In  other 
words,  if  you  and  I  do  our  whole  duty,  and  you  have 
twenty  times  more  talent  than  I  have,  you  will  get  no 
more  divine  reward  than  I  will.  Is  God  going  to  re- 
ward you  because  he  gave  you  more?  That  would 
not  be  fair,  that  would  not  be  right.  These  two  hun- 
dred men  of  the  text  who  fainted  by  the  brook  Besor 
did  their  whole  duty;  they  watched  the  baggage,  they 
took  care  of  the  stuflf,  and  they  got  as  much  of  the 
spoils  of  victory  as  the  men  who  went  to  the  front. 
"  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall 
his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 

There  is  high  encouragement  in  this  for  all  who 
have  great  responsibility  and  little  credit  for  what  they 
do.  You  know  the  names  of  the  great  commercial 
houses  of  these  cities.  Do  you  know  the  names  of 
the  confidential  clerks  —  the  men  who  have  the  key 
to  the  safe,  the  men  who  know  the  combination  of 
the  lock?  A  distinguished  merchant  goes  forth  at  the 
summer  watering  place  and  he  flashes  past,  and  you 
say :  "  Who  is  that?  "  "  Oh,"  repHes  some  one,  "don't 
you  know?  that  is  the  great  importer,  that  is  the  great 

278  VOL.  XI. 


Garrison  Duty 

banker,  that  is  the  great  manufacturer."  The  con- 
fidential clerk  has  his  week  off.  Nobody  notices 
whether  he  comes  or  goes.  Nobody  knows  him,  and 
after  a  while  his  week  is  done,  and  he  sits  down  again 
at  his  desk.  But  God  will  reward  his  fidelity  just  as 
much  as  he  recognizes  the  work  of  the  merchant 
philanthropist  whose  investments  this  unknown  clerk 
so  carefully  guarded.  Hudson  River  Railroad,  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad,  Erie  Railroad,  New  York  and  New 
Haven  Railroad  —  business  men  know  the  names  oi 
the  presidents  of  these  roads  and  of  the  prominent 
directors;  but  they  do  not  know  the  names  of  the  en- 
gineers, the  names  of  the  switchmen,  the  names  of  the 
flagmen,  the  names  of  the  brakemen.  These  men 
have  awful  responsibilities,  and  sometimes  through  the 
recklessness  of  an  engineer,  or  the  unfaithfulness  of  a 
switchman,  it  has  brought  to  mind  the  faithfulness  of 
nearly  all  the  rest  of  them.  Such  men  do  not  have 
recognition  of  their  services.  They  have  small  wages 
and  much  complaint.  I  very  often  ride  upon  locomo- 
tives, for  I  like  engineers,  and  riding  on  the  locomo- 
tive you  seem  to  get  there  sooner,  and  I  ask  the 
question,  as  we  shoot  around  some  curve,  or  under 
some  ledge  of  rocks,  "  How  much  wages  do  you  re- 
ceive? "  and  I  am  always  surprised  to  find  how  little 
for  such  vast  responsibility.  Do  you  not  suppose 
God  is  going  to  recognize  that  fidelity?  Thomas  Scott, 
the  president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railway,  going  up 
at  death  to  receive  from  God  his  destiny,  was  no  bet- 
ter known  in  that  hour  than  was  known  the  brake- 
man  who  last  night  on  the  Erie  Railroad  was  jammed 
to  death  amid  the  car  coupHng.  "  As  his  part  is  that 
goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that 
tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 

Once,  for  thirty-six  hours  we  expected  every  mo- 
ment to  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  The  waves 
VOL.  XI.  279 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

struck  through  the  skylights  and  rushed  down  into 
the  hold  of  the  ship  and  hissed  against  the  boilers. 
It  was  an  awful  time;  but  by  the  blessing  of  God  and 
the  faithfulness  of  the  men  in  charge  we  came  out  of 
the  cyclone  and  we  arrived  at  home.  Each  one  before 
leaving  the  ship  thanked  Captain  Andrews.  I  do  not 
think  there  was  a  man  or  woman  that  went  off  that 
ship  without  thanking  Captain  Andrews,  and  when 
years  after  I  heard  of  his  death  I  was  impelled  to 
write  a  letter  of  condolence  to  his  family  in  Liverpool. 
Everybody  recognized  the  goodness,  the  courage,  the 
kindness  of  Captain  Andrews ;  but  it  occurs  to  me  now 
that  we  never  thanked  the  engineer.  He  stood  away 
down  in  the  darkness  amid  the  hissing  furnaces  doing 
his  whole  duty.  Nobody  thanked  the  engineer,  but 
God  recognized  his  heroism  and  his  fidelity,  and  there 
will  be  just  as  high  reward  for  the  engineer  who 
worked  out  of  sight  as  the  captain  who  stood  on  the 
bridge  of  the  ship  in  the  midst  of  the  howling  tempest. 
"  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall 
his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 

A  Christian  woman  was  seen  going  along  the  edge 
of  a  wood  every  eventide,  and  the  neighbors  in  the 
country  did  not  understand  how  a  mother  with  so 
many  cares  and  anxieties  should  waste  so  much  time 
as  to  be  idly  sauntering  out  evening  by  evening.  It 
was  found  out  afterward  that  she  went  there  to  pray 
for  her  household,  and  while  there  one  evening  she 
wrote  that  beautiful  hymn,  famous  in  all  ages  for 
cheering  Christian  hearts : 

I  love  to  steal  a  while  away 

From  every  cumbering  care, 
And  spend  the  hours  of  setting  day 

In  humble,  grateful  prayer. 

Shall  there  be  no  reward  for  such  unpretending  yet 
everlasting  service? 

280  VOL.  xr. 


Garrison  Duty 

Clear  back  in  the  country  there  is  a  boy  who  wants 
to  go  to  college  and  get  an  education.  They  call  him 
a  bookworm.  Whenever  they  find  him  —  in  the  barn 
or  in  the  house  —  he  is  reading  a  book.  "  What  a  pity 
it  is,"  they  say,  "  that  Ed  cannot  get  an  education." 
His  father,  work  as  hard  as  he  will,  can  no  more  than 
support  the  family  by  the  product  of  the  farm.  One 
night  Ed  has  retired  to  his  room  and  there  is  a  family 
conference  about  him.  The  sisters  say:  "Father,  I 
wish  you  would  send  Ed  to  college;  if  you  will,  we 
will  work  harder  than  we  ever  did,  and  we  will  make 
our  old  dresses  do."  The  mother  says:  "  Yes,  I  will 
get  along  without  any  hired  help;  although  I  am  not 
as  strong  as  I  used  to  be,  I  think  I  can  get  along 
without  any  hired  help."  The  father  says,  "  Well,  I 
think  by  husking  corn  nights  I  can  get  along  without 
any  assistance."  Sugar  is  banished  from  the  table, 
butter  is  banished  from  the  plate.  That  family  is  put 
down  on  rigid,  yea,  suffering  economy,  that  the  boy 
may  go  to  college.  Time  passes  on.  Commencement 
Day  has  come.  Think  not  that  I  mention  an  imaginary 
case.  God  knows  it  happened.  Commencement  Day 
has  come,  and  the  professors  walk  in  on  the  stage  in 
their  long  gowns.  The  interest  of  the  occasion  is  pass- 
ing on,  and  after  a  while  it  comes  to  a  climax  of  in- 
terest as  the  valedictorian  is  to  be  introduced.  Ed 
has  studied  so  hard  and  worked  so  well  that  he  has  had 
the  honor  conferred  upon  him.  There  are  rounds  of 
applause,  sometimes  breaking  into  vociferation.  It  is 
a  great  day  for  Ed.  But  away  back  in  the  galleries  are 
his  sisters  in  their  plain  hats  and  their  faded  shawls, 
and  the  old-fashioned  father  and  mother  —  dear  me, 
she  has  not  had  a  new  hat  for  six  years,  he  has  not 
had  a  new  coat  for  six  years  —  and  they  get  up  and 
look  over  on  the  platform,  and  they  laugh  and  they 
cry,  and  they  sit  down,  and  they  look  pale,  and  then 
VOL.  XI,  281 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

they  are  very  much  flushed.  Ed  gets  the  garlands, 
and  the  old-fashioned  group  in  the  gallery  have  their 
full  share  of  the  triumph.  They  have  made  that  scene 
possible,  and  in  the  day  when  God  shall  more  fully  re- 
ward self-sacrifices  made  for  others,  he  will  give  grand 
and  glorious  recognition.  "  As  his  part  is  that  goeth 
down  to  the  battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by 
the  stuff." 

There  is  high  encouragement  in  this  subject  also 
for  those  who  once  wrought  mightily  for  Christ  and 
the  church,  but  through  sickness  or  collapse  of  for- 
tune or  advanced  years  cannot  now  go  to  the  front. 
These  two  hundred  men  of  the  text  were  veterans. 
Let  that  man  bare  his  arm  and  show  how  the  muscles 
were  torn.  Let  him  pull  aside  the  turban  and  see  the 
mark  of  a  battle  axe.  Pull  aside  the  coat  and  see 
where  the  spear  thrust  him.  Would  it  have  been  fair 
for  those  men  crippled,  weak  and  old,  by  the  brook 
Besor,  to  have  no  share  in  the  spoils  of  triumph?  I 
was  in  the  soldiers'  hospital  in  Paris  and  I  saw  there 
some  of  the  men  of  the  First  Napoleon,  and  I  asked 
them  where  they  had  fought  under  their  great  com- 
mander. One  man  said,  "  I  was  at  AusterHtz."  An- 
other man  said,  "  I  was  at  the  Pyramids."  Another 
man  said,  "  I  was  in  the  awful  retreat  from  Moscow." 
Another  man  said,  "  I  was  at  the  bridge  of  Lodi." 
Some  of  them  were  lame,  they  were  all  aged.  Did  the 
French  Government  turn  off  those  old  soldiers  to  die 
in  want?  No;  their  last  days  were  spent  like  princes. 
Do  you  think  my  Lord  is  going  to  turn  ofif  his  old 
soldiers  because  they  are  weak  and  worn  and  because 
they  fainted  by  the  brook  Besor?  Are  they  going 
to  get  no  part  of  the  spoils  of  the  victory?  Just  look 
at  them.  Do  you  think  those  crevices  in  the  face  are 
wrinkles?  No;  they  are  battle  scars.  They  fought 
against  sickness,  they  fought  against  trouble,  they 
fought  against  sin,  they  fought  for  God,  they  fought 

?82  yoL.  XI, 


Garrison  Duty 

for  the  church,  they  fought  for  the  truth,  they  fought 
for  Heaven.  When  they  had  plenty  of  money  their 
names  were  always  on  the  subscription  list.  When 
there  was  any  hard  work  to  be  done  for  God,  they  were 
ready  to  take  the  heaviest  part  of  it.  When  there  came 
a  great  revival,  they  were  ready  to  pray  all  night  for 
the  anxious  and  the  sin-struck.  They  were  ready  to 
do  any  work,  endure  any  sacrifice,  do  the  most  un- 
popular thing  that  God  demanded  of  them.  But  now 
they  cannot  go  further.  Now  they  have  physical  in- 
firmities, now  their  heads  trouble  them.  They  are 
weak  and  faint  by  the  brook  Besor.  Are  they  to  have 
no  share  in  the  triumph?  Are  they  to  get  none  of 
the  treasures,  none  of  the  spoils  of  conquest?  You 
must  think  that  Christ  has  a  very  short  memory  if 
you  think  he  has  forgotten  their  services. 

Fret  not,  ye  aged  ones.  Just  tarry  by  the  stuff  and 
wait  for  your  share  of  the  spoils.  Yonder  they  are 
coming.  I  hear  the  bleating  of  the  fat  lambs  and  I 
see  the  jewels  gUnt  in  the  sun.  It  makes  me  laugh 
to  think  how  you  will  be  surprised  when  they  throw 
a  chain  of  gold  over  your  neck,  and  tell  you  to  go 
in  and  dine  with  the  King.  I  see  you  backing  out 
because  you  feel  unworthy.  The  shining  ones  come 
up  on  the  one  side,  and  the  shining  ones  come  up  on 
the  other  side,  and  they  push  you  on  and  they  push 
you  up,  and  they  say,  "  Here  is  an  old  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  and  the  shining  ones  will  rush  out  toward 
you  and  say,  "  Yes,  that  man  saved  my  soul,"  or  they 
will  rush  out  and  say,  "  Oh,  yes,  she  was  with  me  in 
the  last  sickness."  And  then  the  cry  will  go  round 
the  circle,  "Come  in,  come  in,  come  up,  come  up; 
we  saw  you  away  down  there,  old  and  sick  and  de- 
crepit and  discouraged  because  you  could  not  go  to 
the  front,  but  '  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff.'  " 
VOL.  XI.  283 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

There  is  high  consolation  also  in  this  for  aged  min- 
isters. They  sit  in  pews  in  our  churches.  They  used 
to  stand  in  pulpits.  Their  hair  is  white  with  the  blos- 
soms of  the  tree  of  life.  Their  names  marked  on  the 
roll  of  the  General  Assembly,  or  of  the  consociation, 
"  Emeritus."  They  sometimes  hear  a  text  announced 
which  brings  to  mind  a  sermon  they  preached  fifty 
years  ago  on  that  same  subject.  They  preached  more 
Gospel  on  four  hundred  dollars  a  year  than  some  of 
their  successors  preach  on  four  thousand  dollars. 
Some  Sunday  the  old  minister  is  in  a  church  and 
near  by  in  another  pew  there  is  a  husband  and  a  wife 
and  a  row  of  children.  And  after  the  benediction 
the  lady  comes  up  and  says,  "  Doctor,  you  don't  know 
me,  do  you?"  "Well,"  he  says,  "Your  face  is  fa- 
miliar, but  I  cannot  call  you  by  name."  "  Why,"  she 
says,  "  You  baptized  me  and  you  married  me  and 
you  buried  my  father  and  mother  and  sisters."  "  Oh, 
yes,"  he  says ;  "  my  eyesight  isn't  as  good  as  it  used 
to  be." 

They  are  in  all  our  churches  —  the  heroes  of  i860, 
the  heroes  of  1870,  the  heroes  of  1880.  By  the  long 
grave  trench  that  cut  through  half  a  century,  they 
have  stood  sounding  the  resurrection.  They  have 
been  in  more  Balaklavas  and  have  taken  more  Se- 
bastopols  than  you  ever  heard  of.  Sometimes  they 
get  a  little  fretful  because  they  cannot  be  at  the  front. 
They  hear  the  sound  of  the  battle  and  the  old  war 
horse  champs  his  bit.  But  the  eighty  thousand  min- 
isters of  religion  this  day  standing  in  the  brunt  of  the 
fray  shall  have  no  more  reward  than  those  retired  vet- 
erans. "  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariots  of  Israel 
and  the  horsemen  thereof."  "  As  his  part  is  that 
goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall  his  part  be  that  tar- 
rieth  by  the  stuff." 

Cheer  up,  men  ana  women  of  unappreciated  ser- 

284  VOL.  XI. 


Garrison  Duty 

vices.  You  will  get  your  reward,  if  not  here,  here- 
after. When  Charles  Wesley  comes  up  to  judgment 
and  the  thousands  of  souls  which  were  wafted  into 
glory  through  his  songs  shall  be  enumerated,  he  will 
take  his  throne.  When  John  Wesley  comes  up  to 
judgment,  and  after  his  name  has  been  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  salvation  of  the  millions  of  souls 
brought  to  God  through  the  Methodism  which  he 
founded,  he  will  take  his  throne.  But  between  the  two 
thrones  of  Charles  Wesley  and  John  Wesley,  there 
will  be  a  throne  higher  than  either  on  which  shall  sit 
Susannah  Wesley,  who,  with  maternal  consecration  in 
Epworth  rectory,  Lincolnshire,  started  those  two  souls 
on  their  triumphant  mission  of  sermon  and  song 
through  all  following  ages.  Oh,  what  a  day  that  will 
be  for  many  who  rocked  Christian  cradles  with  weary 
foot,  and  who  patched  worn-out  garments  and  darned 
socks,  and  out  of  a  small  income  made  the  children 
comfortable  for  the  winter!  What  a  day  that  will  be 
for  those  to  whom  the  world  gave  the  cold  shoulder 
and  called  them  nobodies,  and  begrudged  them  the 
least  recognition,  and  who,  weary  and  worn  and  sick, 
fainted  by  the  brook  Besor.  Oh,  that  will  be  a  mighty 
day  when  the  Son  of  David  shall  distribute  among 
them  the  garlands,  the  crowns,  the  scepters,  the 
chariots,  the  thrones.  And  then  it  shall  be  found  out 
that  all  who  on  earth  served  God  in  inconspicuous 
spheres  receive  just  as  much  reward  as  those  who  filled 
the  earth  with  uproar  of  achievement.  Then  they 
shall  understand  the  height,  the  depth,  the  length,  the 
breadth,  the  pillared  and  domed  magnificence  of  my 
text,  "  As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the  battle, 
so  shall  his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff." 


VOL.  XI.  28s 


THE  BATTLE  FOR  BREAD 

I  Kings,  17:  6:     "And  the  ravens  brought  him  bread  and 
flesh  in  the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  in  the  evening." 


THE  BATTLE  FOR  BREAD 

I  Kings,  17:  6:     "  And  the  ravens  brought  him  bread  and 
flesh  in  the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  in  the  evening." 

The  ornithology  of  the  Bible  is  a  very  interesting 
study.  The  stork  which  knoweth  her  appointed  time. 
The  common  sparrows  teaching  the  lesson  of  God's 
providence.  The  ostriches  of  the  desert,  by  careless 
incubation,  illustrating  the  recklessness  of  parents  who 
do  not  take  enough  pains  with  their  children.  The 
eagle  symbolizing  riches  which  take  wings  and  fly 
away.  The  pelican  emblemizing  solitude.  The  bat, 
a  flake  of  the  darkness.  The  night  hawk,  the  ossi- 
frage,  the  cuckoo,  the  lapwing,  the  osprey,  by  the  com- 
mand of  God  in  Leviticus,  flung  out  of  the  world's 
bill  of  fare. 

I  would  like  to  have  been  with  Audubon  as  he 
went  through  the  woods,  with  gun  and  pencil,  bring- 
ing down  and  sketching  the  fowls  of  heaven,  his  un- 
folded portfolio  thrilling  all  Christendom.  What  won- 
derful creatures  of  God  the  birds  are !  Some  of  them, 
this  morning,  like  the  songs  of  heaven  let  loose,  burst- 
ing through  the  gates  of  heaven.  Consider  their 
feathers,  which  are  clothing  and  conveyance  at  the 
same  time;  the  nine  vertebrae  of  the  neck,  the  three 
eyelids  to  each  eye,  the  third  eyelid  an  extra  curtain 
for  graduating  the  light  of  the  sun.  Some  of  these 
birds  scavengers  and  some  of  them  orchestra.  Thank 
God  for  quail's  whistle  and  lark's  carol  and  the  twit- 
ter of  the  wren,  called  by  the  ancients  the  king  of 
birds,  because  when  the  fowls  of  heaven  went  into  a 
contest  as  to  who  could  fly  the  highest,  and  the  eagle 
VOL.  XI.  289 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

swung  nearest  the  sun,  a  wren  on  the  back  of  the 
eagle,  after  the  eagle  was  exhausted,  sprang  up  much 
higher,  and  so  was  called  by  the  ancients  the  king  o£ 
birds.  Consider  those  of  them  that  have  golden 
crowns  and  crests,  showing  them  to  be  feathered  im- 
perials. And  listen  to  the  humming-bird's  serenade 
in  the  ear  of  the  honeysuckle.  Look  at  the  belted 
kingfisher,  striking  like  a  dart  from  sky  to  water.  Lis- 
ten to  the  voice  of  the  owl,  giving  the  keynote  to  all 
croakers.  And  behold  the  condor  among  the  Andes, 
battling  with  the  fallow-deer.  I  do  not  know  whether 
an  aquarium  or  aviary  is  the  best  altar  from  which  to 
worship  God. 

There  is  an  incident  in  my  text  that  baffles  all  the 
ornithological  wonders  of  the  world.  The  grain  crop 
has  been  cut  off.  Famine  was  in  the  land.  In  a  cave 
by  the  brook  Cherith  sat  a  minister  of  God,  Elijah, 
waiting  for  something  to  eat.  Why  did  he  not  go  to 
the  neighbors?  There  were  no  neighbors;  it  was  a 
wilderness.  Why  did  he  not  pick  some  of  the  berries? 
There  were  none.  If  there  had  been,  they  would 
have  been  dried  up.  Seated  one  morning  at  the  mouth 
of  his  cave,  the  prophet  sees  a  flock  of  birds  approach- 
ing. Oh,  if  they  were  only  partridges,  or  if  he  only 
had  an  arrow  with  which  to  bring  them  down?  But 
as  they  come  nearer,  he  finds  they  are  not  comestible, 
but  unclean,  and  the  eating  of  them  would  be  spiritual 
death.  The  strength  of  their  beaks,  the  length  of 
their  wings,  the  blackness  of  their  color,  their  loud, 
harsh,  "  Cruck !  cruck !  "  prove  them  to  be  ravens. 

They  whirl  around  about  the  prophet's  head,  and 
then  they  come  on  fluttering  wing  and  pause  on  the 
level  of  his  hands,  and  one  of  the  ravens  brings  bread, 
and  another  raven  brings  meat,  and  after  they  have 
discharged  their  tiny  cargo  they  wheel  past,  and  oth- 
ers come,  until  after  a  while  the  prophet  has  enough, 

290  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

and  these  black  servants  of  the  wilderness  table  are 
gone.  For  six  months,  and  some  say  a  whole  year, 
morning  and  evening,  a  breakfast  and  a  supper-bell 
sounded  as  these  ravens  rang  out  on  the  air  their 
"  Cruck !  cruck !  "  Guess  where  they  got  the  food 
from.  The  old  rabbins  say  they  got  it  from  the 
kitchen  of  King  Ahab.  Others  say  that  the  ravens 
got  their  food  from  pious  Obadiah,  who  was  in  the 
habit  of  feeding  the  persecuted.  Some  say  that  the 
ravens  brought  the  food  to  their  young  in  the  trees, 
and  that  Elijah  had  only  to  climb  up  and  get  it. 
Some  say  that  the  whole  story  is  improbable ;  for  these 
were  carnivorous  birds,  and  the  food  they  carried  was 
the  torn  flesh  of  living  beasts,  and  that  ceremonially 
unclean;  or  it  was  carrion,  and  it  would  not  have 
been  fit  for  the  prophet.  Some  say  they  were  not 
ravens  at  all,  but  that  the  word  translated  "  ravens  " 
in  my  text  ought  to  have  been  translated  "  Arabs  " ; 
so  it  would  have  read,  "  The  Arabs  brought  bread  and 
flesh  in  the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  in  the  even- 
ing."    Anything  but  admit  the  Bible  to  be  true. 

Hew  away  at  this  miracle  until  all  the  miracle  is 
gone.  Go  on  with  the  depleting  process,  but  know 
that  you  are  robbing  only  one  man  —  and  that  is 
yourself  —  of  one  of  the  most  comforting,  beautiful, 
pathetic,  and  triumphant  lessons  in  all  the  ages.  I 
can  tell  you  who  these  purveyors  were  —  they  were 
ravens.  I  can  tell  you  who  freighted  them  with 
provisions  —  God.  I  can  tell  you  who  launched  them 
—  God.  I  can  tell  you  who  taught  them  which  way 
to  fly  —  God.  I  can  tell  you  who  told  them  at  what 
cave  to  swoop  —  God.  I  can  tell  you  who  introduced 
raven  to  prophet  and  prophet  to  raven  —  God.  There 
is  one  passage  I  will  whisper  in  your  ear,  for  I  would 
not  want  to  utter  it  aloud,  lest  some  one  should  drop 
down  under  its  power  — "  If  any  man  shall  take  away 
VOL.  XI.  291 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

from  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book,  God  shall 
take  away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of  life  and  out  of 
the  Holy  City." 

While,  then,  we  watch  the  ravens  feeding  Elijah, 
let  the  swift  dove  of  God's  Spirit  sweep  down  the  sky 
with  divine  food,  and  on  outspread  wing  pause  at  the 
lip  of  every  soul  hungering  for  comfort. 

On  the  banks  of  what  rivers  have  been  the  great 
battles  of  the  world?  While  you  are  looking  over  the 
map  of  the  world  to  answer  that,  I  will  tell  you  that 
the  great  conflict  to-day  is  on  the  Thames,  on  the 
Hudson,  on  the  Mississippi,  on  the  Kennebec,  on  the 
Savannah,  on  the  Rhine,  on  the  Nile,  on  the  Ganges, 
on  the  Hoang-Ho.  It  is  a  battle  that  has  been  going 
on  for  six  thousand  years.  The  troops  engaged  in  it 
are  fourteen  hundred  millions,  and  those  who  have 
fallen  are  vaster  in  numbers  than  those  who  march. 
It  is  a  battle  for  bread. 

The  sentimentalist  sits  in  a  cushioned  chair,  in  his 
pictured  study,  with  his  slippered  feet  on  a  damask 
ottoman,  and  says  that  this  world  is  a  great  scene  of 
avarice  and  greed.  It  does  not  seem  so  to  me.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  absolute  necessities  of  the  cases,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  stores,  factories,  shops,  banking-houses 
of  the  land  would  be  closed  to-morrow.  Who  is  that 
man  delving  in  the  Colorado  hills?  or  toiling  in  a  New 
England  factory?  or  going  through  a  roll  of  bills  in 
the  bank?  or  measuring  a  fabric  on  the  counter?  He 
is  a  champion  sent  forth  in  behalf  of  some  home  circle 
that  has  to  be  cared  for,  in  behalf  of  some  church  of 
God  that  has  to  be  supported,  in  behalf  of  some  asylum 
of  mercy  that  has  to  be  sustained.  Who  is  that  woman 
bending  over  the  sewing-machine  or  carrying  the  bun- 
dle or  sweeping  the  room  or  mending  the  garment 
or  sweltering  at  the  washtub?  That  is  Deborah,  one 
of  the  Lord's  heroines,  battling  against  Amalekitish 

292  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

want,  which  comes  down  with  iron  chariot  to  crush 
her  and  hers. 

The  great  question  with  the  vast  majority  of  people 
to-day  is  not  "  Home  Rule,"  but  whether  there  shall 
be  any  home  to  rule;  not  one  of  tariff,  but  whether 
they  shall  have  anything  to  tax.  The  great  question 
is,  "  How  shall  I  support  my  family?  How  shall  I 
meet  my  notes?  How  shall  I  pay  my  rent?  How 
shall  I  give  food,  clothing,  and  education  to  those  who 
are  dependent  upon  me?  "  If  God  will  help  me  to  as- 
sist you  in  the  solution  of  that  problem,  the  happiest 
man  in  this  house  will  be  your  preacher !  I  have 
gone  out  on  a  cold  morning  with  expert  sportsmen 
to  hunt  for  pigeons ;  I  have  gone  out  on  the  meadows 
to  hunt  for  quail ;  I  have  gone  out  on  the  marsh  to  hunt 
for  reed-birds;  but  this  morning  I  am  out  for  ravens. 

Notice,  in  the  first  place  in  the  story  of  my  text, 
that  these  winged  caterers  came  to  Elijah  directly  from 
God.  "  I  have  commanded  the  ravens  that  they  feed 
thee,"  we  find  God  saying  in  an  adjoining  passage. 
They  did  not  come  out  of  some  other  cave.  They  did 
not  just  happen  to  alight  there.  God  freighted  them, 
God  launched  them,  and  God  told  them  by  what  cave 
to  swoop.  That  is  the  same  God  that  is  going  to  sup- 
ply you.  He  is  your  Father.  You  would  have  to  make 
an  elaborate  calculation  before  you  could  tell  me  how 
many  pounds  of  food  and  how  many  yards  of  clothing 
would  be  necessary  for  you  and  your  family;  but  God 
knows  without  any  calculation.  You  have  a  plate  at 
his  table,  and  you  are  going  to  be  waited  on,  unless 
you  act  like  a  naughty  child,  and  kick  and  scramble 
and  pound  saucily  the  plate  and  try  to  upset  things. 

God  has  a  vast  family,  and  everything  is  method- 
ized, and  you  are  going  to  be  served  if  you  will  only 
wait  your  turn.  God  has  already  ordered  all  the  suits 
of  clothes  you  will  ever  need,  down  to  the  last  suit  in 
VOL.  XI.  293 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

which  you  shall  be  laid  out.  God  has  already  ordered 
all  the  food  you  will  ever  eat,  down  to  the  last  crumb 
that  will  be  put  in  your  mouth  in  the  dying  sacrament. 
It  may  not  be  just  the  kind  of  food  or  apparel  we 
would  prefer.  The  sensible  parent  depends  on  his 
own  judgment  as  to  what  ought  to  be  the  apparel  and 
the  food  of  the  minor  in  the  family.  The  child  would 
say,  "  Give  me  sugars  and  confections."  "  Oh,  no," 
says  the  parent;  "you  must  have  something  plainer 
first."  The  child  would  say,  "  Oh,  give  me  these  great 
festoons  of  color  in  the  garment."  "  No,"  says  the 
parent;  "that  would  not  be  suitable."  Now,  God  is 
our  Father  and  we  are  minors,  and  he  is  going  to 
clothe  us  and  feed  us,  although  he  may  not  always 
yield  to  our  infantile  wish  for  sweets  and  glitter. 
These  ravens  of  the  text  did  not  bring  pomegranates 
from  the  glittering  platter  of  King  Ahab.  They 
brought  bread  and  meat.  God  had  all  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  before  him  and  under  him,  and  yet  he 
sent  this  plain  food,  because  it  was  best  for  Elijah  to 
have  it.  Oh,  be  strong,  my  hearer,  in  the  fact  that  the 
same  God  is  going  to  supply  you !  It  is  never  "  hard 
times "  with  him.  His  ships  never  break  on  the 
rocks.  His  banks  never  fail.  He  has  the  supply  for 
you  and  he  has  the  means  for  sending  it.  He  has  not 
only  the  cargo,  but  the  ship.  If  it  were  necessary,  he 
would  swing  out  from  the  heavens  a  flock  of  ravens 
reaching  from  his  gate  to  yours,  until  the  food  would 
be  flung  down  the  sky  from  beak  to  beak  and  from 
talon  to  talon. 

Notice  again  in  this  otory  of  the  text,  that  the 
ravens  did  not  allow  Elijah  to  hoard  up  a  surplus. 
They  did  not  bring  enough  on  Monday  to  last  all 
the  week.  They  did  not  bring  enough  one  morning 
to  last  until  the  next  morning.  They  came  twice  a 
day,  and  brought  just  enough  for  one  time.     You 

294  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

know  as  well  I,  that  the  great  fret  of  the  world  is  that 
we  want  a  surplus;  we  want  the  ravens  to  bring 
enough  for  fifty  years.  You  have  more  confidence  in 
the  Broadway  Bank  or  the  Park  Bank  or  Bank  of 
England  than  you  have  in  the  Royal  Bank  of  Heaven. 
You  say,  "  All  that  is  very  poetic,  but  you  may  have 
the  black  ravens;  give  me  the  gold  eagles."  We  had 
better  be  content  with  just  enough.  If  in  the  morn- 
ing your  family  eat  up  all  the  food  there  is  in  the 
house,  do  not  sit  down  and  cry  and  say,  "  I  don't  know 
where  the  next  meal  is  to  come  from."  About  noon, 
or  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  just  look  up,  and  you 
will  see  two  black  spots  on  the  sky,  and  you  will  hear 
the  flapping  of  wings,  and  instead  of  Edgar  A.  Poe's 
insane  raven  alighting  on  the  chamber  door,  "  only 
this  and  nothing  more,"  you  will  find  Elijah's  two 
ravens,  or  the  two  ravens  of  the  Lord,  the  one  bring- 
ing bread  and  the  other  bringing  meat  —  plumed 
butcher  and  baker. 

God  is  infinite  in  resource.  When  the  city  of 
Rochelle  was  besieged  and  the  inhabitants  were  dying 
of  the  famine,  the  tides  washed  up  on  the  beach,  as 
never  before  nor  since,  enough  shell-fish  to  feed  the 
whole  city.  God  is  good.  There  is  no  mistake  about 
that.  History  tells  us  that  in  1555  in  England  there 
was  a  great  drought.  The  crops  failed;  but  in  Essex, 
on  the  rocks,  in  a  place  where  they  were  neither 
sown  nor  cultured,  a  great  crop  of  peas  grew  until 
they  filled  a  hundred  measures ;  and  there  were  blos- 
soming vines  enough,  promising  as  much  more. 

But  why  go  so  far?  I  can  give  you  a  family  inci- 
dent. Some  generations  back  there  was  a  great 
drought  in  Connecticut,  New  England.  The  water 
disappeared  from  the  hills,  and  the  farmers  living  on 
the  hills  drove  their  cattle  down  toward  the  valleys, 
and  had  them  supplied  at  the  wells  and  fountains  of  the 
VOL.  XI,  295 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

neighbors.  But  these  after  a  while  began  to  fail,  and 
the  neighbors  said  to  Mr.  Birdseye,  of  whom  I  shall 
speak,  "  You  must  not  send  your  flocks  and  herds 
down  here  any  more;  our  wells  are  giving  out."  Mr. 
Birdseye,  the  old  Christian  man,  gathered  his  family 
at  the  altar,  and  with  his  family  he  gathered  the  slaves 
of  the  household  —  for  bondage  was  then  in  vogue  in 
Connecticut  —  and  on  their  knees  before  God  they 
cried  for  water;  and  the  family  story  is,  that  there  was 
weeping  and  great  sobbing  and  prayer  at  that  altar 
that  the  family  might  not  perish  for  lack  of  water,  and 
that  the  herds  and  flocks  might  not  perish.  The  family 
rose  from  the  altar.  Mr.  Birdseye,  the  old  man,  took 
his  staff  and  walked  out  over  the  hills,  and  in  a  place 
where  he  had  been  scores  of  times  without  noticing 
anything  particular,  he  saw  the  ground  was  very  dark, 
and  he  took  his  spade  and  turned  up  the  ground,  and 
water  started;  and  he  beckoned  to  his  servants,  and 
they  came  and  they  brought  pails  and  buckets  until 
all  the  family  and  all  the  flocks  and  the  herds  were 
cared  for;  and  then  they  made  troughs  reaching  from 
that  place  down  to  the  house  and  barn,  and  the  water 
flowed,  and  it  is  a  living  fountain  to-day.  Now  I  call 
that  old  grandfather  Elijah,  and  I  call  that  brook  that 
began  to  roll  then,  and  is  rolling  still,  the  brook  Cher- 
ith;  and  the  lesson  to  me  and  to  all  who  hear  it  is, 
when  you  are  in  great  stress  of  circumstances  pray 
and  dig,  dig  and  pray,  and  pray  and  dig. 

How  does  that  passage  go?  *'  The  mountains  shall 
depart  and  the  hills  be  removed,  but  my  loving  kind- 
ness shall  not  fail."  If  your  merchandise,  if  your 
mechanism,  if  your  husbandry,  fail,  look  you  out  for 
ravens.  If  you  have  in  your  despondency  put  God  on 
trial  and  condemned  him  as  guilty  of  cruelty,  I  move 
for  a  new  trial.  If  the  biography  of  your  life  is  ever 
written,  I  will  tell  you  what  the  first  chapter  and  the 

296  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

middle  chapter  and  the  last  chapter  will  be  about,  if 
it  is  written  accurately.  The  first  chapter  about  mercy, 
the  middle  chapter  about  mercy,  the  last  chapter  about 
mercy.  The  mercy  that  hovered  over  your  cradle. 
The  mercy  that  will  hover  over  your  grave.  The 
mercy  that  will  cover  all  between. 

Again,  this  story  of  the  text  impresses  me  that 
relief  came  to  this  prophet  with  the  most  unexpected 
and  with  the  seemingly  impossible  conveyance.  If  it 
had  been  a  robin-redbreast  or  a  musical  meadow  lark 
or  a  meek  turtle-dove  or  a  sublime  albatross  that  had 
brought  the  food  to  Elijah,  it  would  not  have  been  so 
surprising.  But  no.  It  was  a  bird  so  fierce  and  inaus- 
piciate  that  we  have  fashioned  one  of  our  most  forceful 
and  repulsive  words  out  of  it  —  ravenous.  That  bird 
has  a  passion  for  picking  out  the  eyes  of  men  and 
of  animals.  It  loves  to  maul  the  sick  and  the  dying. 
It  swallows  with  vulturous  guzzle  everything  it  can 
put  its  beak  on;  and  yet  all  the  food  Elijah  gets  for 
six  months  or  a  year  is  from  ravens.  So  your  supply 
will  come  from  an  unexpected  source.  You  think  some 
great-hearted,  generous  man  will  come  along  and  give 
you  his  name  on  the  back  of  your  note,  or  he  will  go 
security  for  you  in  some  great  enterprise.  No,  he  will 
not.  God  will  open  the  heart  of  some  Shylock  toward 
you.  Your  relief  will  come  from  the  most  unexpected 
quarter.  The  Providence  which  seemed  ominous  will 
be  to  you  more  than  that  which  seemed  auspicious.  It 
will  not  be  a  chaffinch  with  breast  and  wing  dashed 
with  white  and  brown  and  chestnut ;  it  will  be  a  black 
raven. 

Here  is  where  we  all  make  our  mistake,  and  that  is 
in  regard  to  the  color  of  God's  providence.  A  white 
providence  comes  to  us,  and  we  say,  "  Oh,  it  is 
mercy!  "  Then  a  black  providence  comes  toward  us, 
and  we  say,  "  Oh,  that  is  disaster!  "  The  white  provi- 
voL.  XI.  297 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

dence  comes  to  you,  and  you  have  great  business  suc- 
cess, and  you  have  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  you  get 
proud,  and  you  get  independent  of  God,  and  you  begin 
to  feel  that  the  prayer,  "  Give  me  this  day  my  daily 
bread,"  is  inappropriate  for  you,  for  you  have  made 
provision  for  a  hundred  years.  Then  a  black  provi- 
dence comes,  and  it  sweeps  everything  away,  and  then 
you  begin  to  pray,  and  you  begin  to  feel  your  depend- 
ence, and  begin  to  be  humble  before  God,  and  you  cry 
out  for  treasures  in  heaven.  The  black  providence 
brought  you  salvation.  The  white  providence  brought 
you  ruin.  That  which  seemed  to  be  harsh  and  fierce 
and  dissonant  was  your  greatest  mercy.  It  was  a 
raven. 

There  was  a  child  born  in  your  house.  All  your 
friends  congratulated  you.  The  other  children  of  the 
family  stood  amazed  looking  at  the  new-comer,  and 
asked  a  great  many  questions,  genealogical  and  chro- 
nological. You  said  with  poetic  truthfulness  that  a 
white  angel  flew  through  the  room  and  left  the  little 
one  there.  That  little  one  stood  with  its  two  feet  in 
the  very  sanctuary  of  your  affection,  and  with  its  two 
hands  it  took  hold  of  the  altar  of  your  soul.  But  one 
day  there  came  one  of  the  three  scourges  of  children 
—  scarlet  fever  or  croup  or  diphtheria  —  and  all  that 
bright  scene  vanished.  The  chattering,  the  strange 
questions,  the  pulling  at  the  dress  as  you  crossed  the 
floor  —  all  ceased.  As  the  great  Friend  of  children 
stooped  down  and  leaned  toward  the  cradle,  and  took 
the  little  one  in  his  arms  and  walked  away  with  it 
into  the  bower  of  eternal  summer,  your  eye  began  to 
follow  him,  and  you  followed  the  treasure  he  carried, 
and  you  have  been  following  them  ever  since;  and  in- 
stead of  thinking  of  heaven  only  once  a  week,  as  for- 
merly, you  are  thinking  of  it  all  the  time,  and  you  are 

298  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

more  pure  and  tender-hearted  than  you  used  to  be, 
and  you  are  patiently  waiting  for  the  daybreak.  It 
is  not  self-righteousness  in  you  to  acknowledge  that 
you  are  a  better  man  than  you  used  to  be  —  that  you 
are  a  better  woman  than  you  used  to  be.  What  was 
it  that  brought  you  the  sanctifying  blessing?  Oh,  it 
was  the  dark  shadow  on  the  nursery;  it  was  the  dark 
shadow  on  the  short  grave;  it  was  the  dark  shadow 
on  your  broken  heart;  it  was  the  brooding  of  a  great 
black  trouble ;  it  was  a  raven  —  it  was  a  raven !  Dear 
Lord,  teach  this  people  that  white  providences  do  not 
always  mean  advancement,  and  that  black  providences 
do  not  always  mean  retrogression. 

Children  of  God,  get  up  out  of  your  despondency. 
The  Lord  never  had  so  many  ravens  as  he  has  now. 
Fling  your  fret  and  worry  to  the  winds.  Sometimes 
under  the  vexations  of  life  you  feel  like  my  daughter 
when  she  was  a  little  girl  of  four  years,  who  said,  under 
some  childish  vexation,  "  Oh,  I  wish  I  could  go  to 
heaven  and  see  God  and  pick  flowers !  "  He  will  let 
you  go  when  the  right  time  comes  to  pick  flowers. 
Until  then,  whatever  you  want,  pray  for.  I  suppose 
Elijah  prayed  pretty  much  all  the  time.  Tremendous 
work  behind  him.  Tremendous  work  before  him. 
God  has  no  spare  ravens  for  idlers  or  for  people  who 
are  prayerless.  I  put  it  in  the  boldest  shape  possible, 
and  I  am  willing  to  risk  my  eternity  on  it;  ask  God  in 
the  right  way  for  what  you  want,  and  you  shall  have 
it  if  it  is  best  for  you. 

Mrs.  Jane  Pithey,  of  Chicago,  a  well-known  Chris- 
tian woman,  was  left  by  her  husband  a  widow  with 
one-half  dollar  and  a  cottage.  She  was  palsied,  and 
had  a  mother  ninety  years  of  age  to  support.  The 
widowed  soul  every  day  asked  God  for  all  that  was 
needed  in  the  household,  and  even  the  servant  was  as- 
voL.  XI.  299 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

tonished  at  the  precision  with  which  God  answered 
the  prayers  of  that  woman,  item  by  item,  item  by  item. 
One  day,  rising  from  the  family  altar,  the  servant  said, 
"  You  have  not  asked  for  coal,  and  the  coal  is  out." 
Then  they  stood  and  prayed  for  the  coal.  One  hour 
after  that  the  servant  threw  open  the  door  and  said, 
"  The  coal  has  come."  A  generous  man,  whose  name 
I  could  give  you,  had  sent  —  as  never  before  and 
never  since  —  a  supply  of  coal.  You  cannot  under- 
stand it.    I  do.    Ravens!    Ravens! 

My  friend,  you  have  a  right  to  argue  from  prece- 
dent that  God  is  going  to  take  care  of  you.  Has  he 
not  done  it  two  or  three  times  every  day?  That  is 
most  marvelous.  I  look  back  and  I  wonder  that  God 
has  given  me  food  three  times  a  day  regularly  all  my 
lifetime,  never  missing  but  once,  and  then  I  was  lost  in 
the  mountains;  but  that  very  morning  and  that  very 
night  I  met  the  ravens. 

Oh,  the  Lord  is  so  good  that  I  wish  you  all  would 
trust  him  with  the  two  lives  —  the  life  you  are  now 
living  and  that  which  every  tick  of  the  watch  and  every 
stroke  of  the  clock  inform  you  is  approaching.  Bread 
for  your  immortal  soul  comes  to-day.  See!  Ravens! 
Ravens!  "Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  after  right- 
eousness, for  they  shall  be  filled."  To  all  the  sinning 
and  the  sorrowing  and  the  tempted  deliverance  comes 
this  hour.  Look  down,  and  you  see  nothing  but  your 
spiritual  deformities.  Look  back,  and  you  see  nothing 
but  wasted  opportunity.  Cast  your  eye  forward,  and 
you  have  a  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery 
indignation  which  shall  devour  the  adversary.  But 
look  up,  and  you  behold  the  whipped  shoulders  of  an 
interceding  Christ,  and  the  face  of  a  pardoning  God, 
and  the  irradiation  of  an  opening  heaven.  I  hear  the 
whirr  of  their  wings.  Do  you  not  feel  the  rush  of  the 
air  on  your  cheek  ?   Ravens !    Ravens  I 

300  VOL.  XI. 


The  Battle  for  Bread 

There  is  only  one  question  I  want  to  ask:  How 
many  of  you  are  willing  to  trust  God  for  the  supply 
of  your  bodies,  and  trust  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the 
redemption  of  your  immortal  souls?  Amid  the  clatter 
of  the  hoofs  and  the  clang  of  the  wheels  of  the  judg- 
ment-chariot the  whole  matter  will  be  demonstrated. 


VOL.  XI.  301 


HEAVY  LOADS 

Psalm,  55:22:      "Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and   he 
shall  sustain  thee." 


HEAVY  LOADS 

Psalm,  55:  22:     "Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and   he 
shall  sustain  thee," 

David  was  here  taking-  his  own  medicine.  If  any- 
body had  on  him  heavy  weights,  David  had  them, 
and  yet  out  of  his  own  experience  he  advises  you 
and  me  as  to  the  best  way  of  getting  rid  of  burdens. 
This  is  a  world  of  burden-bearing.  Tidings  come 
from  across  the  sea  that  Bishop  Wiley,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  —  going 
around  the  world  —  falls  at  his  work  at  Foo  Chow, 
China.  A  man  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  he,  his 
name  the  synonym  for  all  that  is  good  and  kind 
and  gracious  and  beneficent,  and  that  entire  de- 
nomination has  a  burden  of  mourning.  Word  comes 
to  us  from  West  Virginia  and  from  Kentucky  of  a 
scourge  sweeping  off  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
people,  and  there  is  a  burden  of  sorrow.  Sorrow 
on  the  sea  and  sorrow  on  the  land.  Coming  into  the 
house  of  prayer  there  may  be  no  sign  of  sadness  or 
sorrow,  but  where  is  the  man  who  has  not  a  conflict  ? 
Where  is  the  soul  that  has  not  a  struggle?  And 
there  is  not  a  day  of  all  the  year  when  my  text 
is  not  gloriously  appropriate,  and  there  is  never  an 
audience  assembled  on  the  planet  where  the  text  is 
not  gloriously  appropriate :  "  Cast  thy  burden  upon 
the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee." 

In  the  far  East,  wells  of  water  are  so  infrequent 
that  when  a  man  owns  a  well  he  has  a  property  of 
very  great  value,  and  sometimes  battles  have  been 
fought  for  the  possession  of  one  well  of  water;  but 
there  is  one  well  that  every  man  owns,  a  deep  well, 
VOL.  XI.  305 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

a  perennial  well,  a  well  of  tears.  If  a  man  has  not  a 
burden  on  this  shoulder,  he  has  a  burden  on  the  other 
shoulder. 

The  day  I  left  home  to  look  after  myself  and 
for  myself,  in  the  wagon  my  father  sat  driving,  and 
he  said  that  day  something  ^yhich  has  kept  with  me 
all  my  Hfe :  "  DeWitt,  it  is  always  safe  to  trust  God. 
I  have  many  a  time  come  to  a  crisis  of  difficulty. 
You  may  know  that,  having  been  sick  for  fifteen 
years,  it  was  no  easy  thing  for  me  to  support  a 
family;  but  always  God  came  to  the  rescue.  I  re- 
member the  time,"  he  said,  "  when  I  did  not  know 
what  to  do,  and  I  saw  a  man  on  horseback  riding 
up  the  farm  lane,  and  he  announced  to  me  that  I 
had  been  nominated  for  the  most  lucrative  office  in 
the  gift  of  the  people  of  the  county ;  and  to  that  office 
I  was  elected,  and  God  in  that  way  met  all  my  wants, 
and  I  tell  you  it  is  always  safe  to  trust  him." 

What  we  want  is  a  practical  religion!  The  re- 
ligion many  people  have  is  so  high  up  you  cannot 
reach  it.  I  had  a  friend  who  entered  the  life  of  an 
evangelist.  He  gave  up  a  lucrative  business  in  Chi- 
cago, and  he  and  his  wife  finally  came  to  severe 
want.  He  told  me  that  in  the  morning  at  prayers 
he  said :  "  O  Lord,  thou  knowest  we  have  not  a 
mouthful  of  food  in  the  house !  Help  me,  help  us !  " 
And  he  started  out  on  the  street,  and  a  gentleman 
met  him,  and  said :  "  Sir,  I  have  been  thinking  of 
you  for  a  good  while.  You  know  I  am  a  flour  mer- 
chant ;  if  you  won't  be  offended,  I  should  like  to  send 
you  a  barrel  of  flour."  He  cast  his  burden  on  the 
Lord,  and  the  Lord  sustained  him.  Now,  that  is  the 
kind  of  reUgion  we  want. 

In  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  I  have  been  told,  there 
is  a  place  where  whichever  way  a  ship  captain  puts 
his  ship  he  finds  the  wind  against  him,  and  there  are 

306  VOL.  XI. 


Heavy  Loads 

men  who  all  their  lives  have  been  running  in  the 
teeth  of  the  wind,  and  which  way  to  turn  they  do  not 
know.  I  address  them  not  perfunctorily,  but  as  one 
brother  talks  to  another  brother :  "  Cast  thy  burden 
upon  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee." 

There  are  a  great  many  men  who  have  business 
burdens.  When  we  see  a  man  harried  and  perplexed 
and  annoyed  in  business  life,  we  are  apt  to  say :  "  He 
ought  not  to  have  attempted  to  carry  so  much."  Ah ! 
that  man  may  not  be  to  blame  at  all.  When  a  man 
plants  a  business  he  does  not  know  what  will  be  its 
outgrowths,  what  will  be  its  roots,  what  will  be  its 
branches.  There  is  many  a  man  with  keen  foresight 
and  large  business  faculty  who  has  been  flung  into 
the  dust  by  unforeseen  circumstances  springing  upon 
him  from  ambush.  When  to  buy,  when  to  sell,  when 
to  trust  and  to  what  amount  of  credit,  what  will  be 
the  effect  of  this  new  invention  of  machinery,  what 
will  be  the  effect  of  that  loss  of  crop,  and  a  thousand 
other  questions  perplex  business  men  until  the  hair 
is  silvered  and  deep  wrinkles  are  plowed  in  the  cheek ; 
and  the  stocks  go  up  by  the  mountains  and  go  down 
by  valleys,  and  are  at  their  wits'  ends,  and  stagger 
like  drunken  men>  There  never  has  been  a  time 
when  there  have  been  such  rivalries  in  business  as 
now.  It  is  hardware  against  hardware,  books  against 
books,  chandlery  against  chandlery,  imported  article 
against  imported  article.  A  thousand  stores  in  com- 
bat with  another  thousand  stores.  Never  such  ad- 
vantage of  Hght,  never  such  variety  of  assortment, 
never  so  much  splendor  of  show  window,  never  so 
much  adroitness  of  salesmen,  never  so  much  acute- 
ness  of  advertising,  and  amid  all  these  severities  of 
rivalry  in  business,  how  many  men  break  down !  Oh, 
the  burden  on  the  shoulder !  Oh,  the  burden  on  the 
heart ! 
VOL.  XI.  307 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

You  hear  that  it  is  avarice  which  diives  these 
men  of  business  through  the  street,  and  that  is  the 
commonly  accepted  idea.  I  do  not  beheve  a  word  of 
it.  The  vast  multitude  of  these  business  men  are 
toiling  for  others.  To  educate  their  children,  to  put 
wing  of  protection  over  their  households,  to  have 
something  left  so  when  they  pass  out  of  this  life  their 
wives  and  children  will  not  have  to  go  to  the  poor- 
house —  that  is  the  way  I  translate  the  vast  majority 
of  that  energy  in  the  street  and  store.  Grip,  Gouge 
&  Co.  do  not  do  all  the  business.  Some  of  us  re- 
member when  the  Central  America  was  coming  home 
from  California  she  was  wrecked.  President  Arthur's 
father-in-law  was  the  heroic  captain  of  that  ship,  and 
went  down  with  most  of  the  passengers.  Some  got 
off  into  the  lifeboats,  but  there  was  a  young  man  re- 
turning from  California  who  had  a  bag  of  gold  in  his 
hand;  and  as  the  last  boat  shoved  ofif  from  the  ship 
that  was  to  go  down,  that  young  man  shouted  to  a 
comrade  in  the  boat,  "  Here,  John,  catch  this  gold ; 
there  are  three  thousand  dollars ;  take  it  home  to  my 
old  mother,  it  will  make  her  comfortable  in  her  last 
days."  Grip,  Gouge  &  Co.  do  not  do  all  the  business 
of  the  world. 

Do  you  say  that  God  does  not  care  anything  about 
your  worldly  business  ?  I  tell  you  God  knows  more 
about  it  than  you  do.  He  knows  all  your  perplexities. 
he  knows  what  mortgagee  is  about  to  foreclose; 
he  knows  what  note  you  cannot  pay ;  he  knows  what 
unsalable  goods  you  have  on  your  shelves ;  he  knows 
all  your  trials  from  the  day  you  took  hold  of  the  first 
yardstick  down  to  that  sale  of  the  last  yard  of  rib- 
bon, and  the  God  who  helped  David  to  be  king, 
and  who  helped  Daniel  to  be  prime  minister,  and 
who  helped  Havelock  to  be  a  soldier  will  help  you 
to  discharge  all  your  duties.    He  is  going  to  see  you 

308  VOL.  XI. 


Heavy  Loads 

through.  When  loss  comes,  and  you  find  your  prop- 
erty going,  just  take  the  Bible  and  put  it  down  by 
your  ledger,  and  read  of  the  eternal  possessions  that 
will  come  to  you  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  when  your  business  partner  betrays  you,  and 
your  friends  turn  against  you,  just  take  the  insulting 
letter,  put  it  down  on  the  table,  put  your  Bible  be- 
side the  insulting  letter,  and  then  read  of  the  friend- 
ship of  him  who  "  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother." 

God  has  a  sympathy  with  anybody  who  is  in  any 
kind  of  toil.  He  knows  how  heavy  is  the  hod  of 
bricks  that  the  workman  carries  up  the  ladder  of  the 
wall;  he  hears  the  pickax  of  the  miner  down  in  the 
coal  shaft ;  he  knows  how  strong  the  tempest  strikes 
the  sailor  at  the  masthead;  he  sees  the  factory  girl 
among  the  spindles,  and  knows  how  her  arms  ache; 
he  sees  the  sewing  woman  in  the  fourth  story,  and 
knows  how  few  pence  she  gets  for  making  a  garment ; 
and  louder  than  all  the  din  and  roar  of  the  city 
comes  the  voice  of  a  sympathetic  God :  "  Cast  thy 
burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee." 

Then  there  are  a  great  many  who  have  a  weight 
of  persecution  and  abuse  upon  them.  Sometimes 
society  gets  a  grudge  against  a  man.  All  his  motives 
are  misinterpreted  and  his  good  deeds  are  depre- 
ciated. With  more  virtue  than  some  of  the  honored 
and  applauded,  he  runs  only  against  raillery  and 
sharp  criticism.  When  a  man  begins  to  go  down, 
he  has  not  only  the  force  of  natural  gravitation,  but  a 
hundred  hands  to  help  him  in  the  precipitation.  Men 
are  persecuted  for  their  virtues  and  their  successes. 
Germanicus  said  he  had  just  as  many  bitter  antagon- 
ists as  he  hajd  adornments.  The  character  sometimes 
is  so  lustrous  that  the  weak  eyes  of  Envy  and  Jeal- 
ousy cannot  bear  to  look  at  it.  It  was  their  integrity 
that  put  Joseph  in  the  pit,  and  Daniel  in  the  den,  and 
VOL.  XI.  309 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmagc 

Shadrach  in  the  fire,  and  sent  John  the  Evangelist  to 
desolate  Patmos,  and  Calvin  to  the  castle  of  persecu- 
tion, and  John  Huss  to  the  stake,  and  Korah  after 
Moses,  and  Saul  after  David,  and  Herod  after  Christ. 
Be  sure  if  you  have  anything  to  do  for  church  or 
State,  and  you  attempt  it  with  all  your  soul,  lightning 
will  strike  you.  The  world  always  has  had  a  cross 
between  two  thieves  for  the  one  who  comes  to  save 
it.  High  and  holy  enterprise  has  always  been  fol- 
lowed by  abuse.  The  most  sublime  tragedy  of  self- 
sacrifice  has  come  to  burlesque.  The  graceful  gait 
of  virtue  is  always  followed  by  scoffers'  gri- 
mace and  travesty.  The  sweetest  strain  of 
poetry  ever  written  has  come  to  ridiculous  parody, 
and  as  long  as  there  are  virtue  and  righteousness  in 
the  world,  there  will  be  something  for  iniquity  to 
grin  at.  All  along  the  Hne  of  the  ages,  and  in  all 
lands,  the  cry  has  been :  "  Not  this  man,  but  Barab- 
bas.    Now,  Barabbas  was  a  robber." 

What  makes  the  persecutions  of  life  worse,  is  that 
they  come  from  people  whom  you  have  helped,  from 
those  to  whom  you  loaned  money  or  have  started  in 
business,  or  whom  you  rescued  in  some  great  crisis. 
I  think  it  has  been  the  history  of  all  our  lives  —  the 
most  acrimonious  assault  has  come  from  those  whom 
we  have  benefited,  whom  we  have  helped,  and  that 
makes  it  all  the  harder  to  bear.  A  man  is  in  danger 
of  becoming  cynical.  A  clergyman  of  the  Universalist 
Church  went  into  a  neighborhood  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  church  of  his  denomination,  and  he  was 
pointed  to  a  certain  house,  and  went  there.  He  said 
to  the  man  of  the  house :  "  I  understand  you  are  a 
Universalist ;  I  want  you  to  help  me  in  the  enterprise." 
"  Well,"  said  the  man,  "  I  am  a  Universalist,  but  I 
have  a  peculiar  kind  of  Universalism."  "  What  is 
that?  "  asked  the  minister.    "  Well,"  replied  the  other, 

310  VOL.  XI. 


Heavy  Loads 

"  I  have  been  out  in  the  world,  and  I  have  been 
cheated  and  slandered  and  outraged  and  abused  until 
I  believe  in  universal  damnation ! "  The  great  dan- 
ger is  that  men  will  become  cynical  and  given  to  be- 
lieve, as  David  was  tempted  to  say,  that  all  men  are 
liars.  Oh,  my  friends,  do  not  let  that  be  the  effect 
upon  your  souls !  If  you  cannot  endure  a  little  perse- 
cution, how  do  you  think  our  fathers  endured  great 
persecution?  Motley,  in  his  Dutch  Republic,  tells 
of  Egmont,  the  martyr,  who,  condemned  to  be  be- 
headed, unfastened  his  collar  on  the  way  to  the  scaf- 
fold; and  when  they  asked  him  why  he  did  that,  he 
said :  "  So  they  will  not  be  detained  in  their  work ;  I 
want  to  be  ready."  Oh,  how  little  we  have  to  endure 
compared  with  those  who  have  gone  before  us ! 

Now,  if  you  have  come  across  ill-treatment,  let 
me  tell  you  you  are  in  excellent  company  —  Christ 
and  Luther  and  Galileo  and  Columbus  and  John  Jay 
and  Josiah  Quincy  and  thousands  of  men  and  women, 
the  best  spirits  of  earth  and  heaven.  Budge  not  one 
inch,  though  all  hell  wreak  upon  you  its  vengeance, 
and  you  be  made  a  target  for  devils  to  shoot  at.  Do 
you  not  think  Christ  knows  all  about  persecution? 
Was  he  not  hissed  at?  Was  he  not  struck  on  the 
cheek?  Was  he  not  pursued  all  the  days  of  his 
life?  Did  they  not  expectorate  in  his  face?  Or,  to 
put  it  in  Bible  language,  "  They  spit  upon  him."  And 
cannot  he  understand  what  persecution  is  ?  "  Cast 
thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee." 

Then,  there  are  others  who  carry  great  burdens 
of  physical  ailments.  When  sudden  sickness  has 
come,  and  fierce  choleras  and  malignant  fevers  take 
the  castles  of  Ufe  by  storm,  we  appeal  to  God ;  but  in 
these  chronic  ailments  which  wear  out  the  strength 
day  after  day,  and  week  after  week,  and  year  after 
year,  how  little  resorting  to  God  for  solace!    Then 

VOL.  XI.  311 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

people  depend  upon  their  tonics  and  their  plasters 
and  their  cordials  rather  than  upon  heavenly  stimu- 
lants. How  few  people  there  are  completely  well! 
Some  of  you,  by  dint  of  perseverance  and  care,  have 
kept  living  to  this  time ;  but  how  you  have  had  to  war 
against  physical  ailments !  Antediluvians,  without 
medical  college  and  infirmary  and  apothecary  shop, 
multiplied  their  years  by  hundreds ;  but  he  who  has 
gone  through  the  gauntlet  of  disease  in  our  time,  and 
has  come  to  seventy  years  of  age,  is  a  hero  worthy  of 
a  palm.  The  world  seems  to  be  a  great  hospital, 
and  you  encounter  rheumatisms  and  consumptions 
and  scrofulas  and  neuralgias  and  scores  of  old  dis- 
eases baptized  by  new  nomenclature.  Oh,  how  heavy 
a  burden  sickness  is!  It  takes  the  color  out  of  the 
sky  and  the  sparkle  out  of  the  wave  and  the  sweet- 
ness out  of  the  fruit  and  the  luster  out  of  the  night. 
When  the  limbs  ache,  when  the  respiration  is  painful, 
when  the  mouth  is  hot,  when  the  ear  roars  with  un- 
healthy obstructions,  how  hard  it  is  to  be  patient  and 
cheerful  and  assiduous !  "  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the 
Lord."  Does  your  head  ache  ?  His  wore  the  thorn. 
Do  your  feet  hurt?  His  were  crushed  of  the  spikes. 
Is  your  side  painful?  His  was  struck  by  the  spear. 
Do  you  feel  like  giving  way  under  the  burden  ?  His 
weakness  gave  way  under  a  cross.  While  you  are  in 
every  possible  way  to  try  to  restore  your  physical 
vigor,  you  are  to  remember  that  more  soothing  than 
any  anodyne,  and  more  vitalizing  than  any  stimulant, 
and  more  strengthening  than  any  tonic  is  the  pre- 
scription of  the  text :  "  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the 
Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee." 

We  hear  a  great  deal  of  talk  now  about  faith 
cure,  and  some  people  say  it  cannot  be  done  and  it 
is  a  failure.    I  do  not  know  but  that  the  chief  advance 

312  VOL.  XI. 


Heavy  Loads 

of  the  Church  is  to  be  in  that  direction.  Marvelous 
things  come  to  me  day  by  day  which  make  me  think 
that  if  the  age  of  miracles  is  past,  it  is  because  the 
faith  of  miracles  is  past.  A  prominent  merchant  of 
New  York  said  to  a  member  of  my  family :  "  My 
mother  wants  her  case  mentioned  to  Mr.  Talmage." 
This  was  the  case.  He  said :  "  My  mother  had  a 
dreadful  abscess,  from  which  she  had  suffered  untold 
agonies,  and  all  surgery  had  been  exhausted  upon 
her,  and  worse  and  worse  she  grew  until  we  called 
in  a  few  Christian  friends  and  proceeded  to  pray  about 
it.  We  commended  her  case  to  God,  and  the  abscess 
began  immediately  to  be  cured.  She  is  entirely  well 
now,  and  without  knife  and  without  any  surgery." 
So  that  case  has  come  to  me,  and  there  are  a  score 
of  other  cases  coming  to  our  ears  from  all  parts  of 
the  earth.  Oh,  ye  who  are  sick,  go  to  Christ !  Oh,  ye 
who  are  worn  out  with  agonies  of  body,  "  cast  thy 
burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  sustain  thee !  " 
Another  burden  some  have  to  carry  is  the  bur- 
den of  bereavement.  Ah !  these  are  the  troubles  that 
wear  us  out.  If  we  lose  our  property,  by  additional 
industry  perhaps  we  may  bring  back  the  lost  fortune ; 
if  we  lose  our  good  name,  perhaps  by  reformation  of 
morals  we  may  achieve  agjain  reputation  for  integrity ; 
but  who  will  bring  back  the  dear  departed?  Alas! 
for  these  empty  cradles  and  these  trunks  of  childish 
toys  that  will  never  be  used  again.  Alas  !•  for  the 
empty  chair  and  the  silence  in  the  halls  that  will  never 
echo  again  to  those  familiar  footsteps.  Alas !  for  the 
cry  of  widowhood  and  orphanage.  What  bitter 
marahs  in  the  wilderness,  what  cities  of  the  dead,  what 
long,  black  shadow  from  the  wing  of  death,  what  eyes 
sunken  with  grief,  what  hands  tremulous  with  be- 
reavement,'what  instruments  of  music  shut  now  be- 
voL.  XI.  313 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

cause  there  are  no  fingers  to  play  on  them !  Is  there 
no  relief  for  such  souls?  Ay,  let  that  soul  ride  into 
the  harbor  of  my  text: 

The  soul  that  on  Jesus  hath  leaned  for  repose, 

I  will  not,  I  will  not  desert  to  its  foes; 

That  soul,  though  all  hell  shall  endeavor  to  shake, 

I'll  never,  no  never,  no  never  forsake. 

Now,  the  grave  is  brighter  than  the  ancient  tomb 
where  the  lights  were  perpetually  kept  burning.  The 
scarred  feet  of  him  who  was  "  the  resurrection  and 
the  life  "  are  on  the  broken  grave  hillock,  while  the 
voices  of  angels  ring  down  the  sky  at  the  coronation 
of  another  soul  come  home  to  glory. 

Then  there  are  many  who  carry  the  burden  of  sin. 
We  all  carry  it  until,  in  the  appointed  way,  that  bur- 
den is  lifted.  We  need  no  Bible  to  prove  that  the 
whole  race  is  ruined.  What  a  spectacle  it  would  be 
if  we  could  tear  oflf  the  mask  that  hides  human  defile- 
ment, or  beat  a  drum  that  would  bring  up  the  whole 
army  of  the  world's  transgressions  —  the  deception, 
the  fraud,  the  rapine,  the  murder  and  the  crime  of  all 
the  centuries !  Ay,  if  I  could  sound  the  trumpet  of 
resurrection  in  the  soul  of  the  best  in  the  world,  and 
all  the  dead  sins  of  the  past  should  come  up,  we  could 
not  endure  the  sight.  Sin,  grim  and  dire,  has  put  its 
clutch  upon  the  immortal  soul,  and  that  clutch  will 
never  relax  unless  it  be  under  the  heel  of  him  who 
came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil. 

What  it  is  to  have  a  mountain  of  sin  on  the  soul ! 
Is  there  no  way  to  have  the  burden  moved?  Yes. 
"  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord."  The  sinless  one 
came  to  take  the  consequences  of  our  sin !  And  I 
know  he  is  in  earnest.  How  do  I  know  it?  By  the 
streaming  temples  and  the  streaming  hands  as  he 
says,  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 

314  VOL.  XI. 


Heavy  Loads 

laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  Why  will  prodigals 
live  on  swines'  husks  when  the  robe  and  the  ring  and 
the  father's  welcome  are  ready?  Why  go  wandering 
over  the  great  Sahara  Desert  of  your  sin  when  you 
are  invited  to  the  gardens  of  God,  the  trees  of  life, 
and  the  fountains  of  living  water?  Why  be  house- 
less and  homeless  forever,  when  you  may  become  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty? 


VOL.  XI.  315 


ISAAC  RESCUED 

Genesis,  22:  7:    "  Behold  the  fire  and  the  wood,  but  where  is 
the  Iamb?" 


ISAAC  RESCUED 

Genesis,  22:  7:    "  Behold  the  fire  and  the  wood,  but  where  is 
the  lamb?" 

Here  are  Abraham  and  Isaac ;  the  one  a  kind,  old, 
gracious,  affectionate  father;  the  other  a  brave,  obe- 
dient, religious  son.  From  his  bronzed  appearance 
you  can  tell  that  this  son  has  been  much  in  the  fields, 
and  from  his  shaggy  dress  you  know  that  he  has 
been  watching  the  herds.  The  mountain  air  has 
painted  his  cheek  rubicund.  He  is  twenty,  or  twenty- 
five,  or,  as  some  suppose,  thirty-three  years  of  age; 
nevertheless  a  boy,  considering  the  length  of  life  to 
which  people  lived  in  those  times,  and  the  fact  that 
a  son  never  is  anything  but  a  boy  to  a  father.  I  re- 
member that  my  father  used  to  come  into  the  house 
when  the  children  were  home  on  some  festal  occa- 
sion, and  say:  "Where  are  the  boys?"  although 
"  the  boys  "  were  twenty-five  and  thirty  and  thirty- 
five  years  of  age.  So  this  Isaac  is  only  a  boy  to 
Abraham,  and  this  father's  heart  is  in  him.  It  is  Isaac 
here  and  Isaac  there.  If  there  is  any  festivity  around 
the  father's  tent,  Isaac  must  enjoy  it.  It  is  Isaac's 
walk  and  Isaac's  apparel  and  Isaac's  manners  and 
Isaac's  prospects  and  Isaac's  prosperity.  The  father's 
heart-strings  are  all  wrapped  around  that  boy,  and 
wrapped  again,  until  nine-tenths  of  the  old  man's  life 
is  in  Isaac.  I  can  just  imagine  how  lovingly  and 
proudly  he  looked  at  his  only  son. 

Well,  the  dear  old  man  had  borne  a  great  deal  of 
trouble,  and  it  had  left  its  mark  upon  him.  In  hiero- 
glyphics of  wrinkle,  the  story  was  written  from  fore- 
voL.  XI.  319 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

head  to  chin.  But  now  his  trouble  seems  all  gone, 
and  we  are  glad  that  he  is  very  soon  to  rest  forever. 
If  the  old  man  shall  get  decrepit,  Isaac  is  strong 
enough  to  wait  on  him.  If  the  father  get  dim  of  eye- 
sight, Isaac  will  lead  him  by  the  hand.  If  the  father 
become  destitute,  Isaac  will  earn  him  bread.  How 
glad  we  are  that  the  ship  that  has  been  in  such  a 
stormy  sea  is  coming  at  last  into  the  harbor.  Are 
you  not  rejoiced  that  glorious  old  Abraham  is 
through  with  his  troubles  ?  No !  no !  A  thunderbolt  1 
From  that  clear  eastern  sky  there  drops  into  that 
father's  tent  a  voice  with  an  announcement  enough  to 
turn  black  hair  white,  and  to  stun  the  patriarch  into 
instant  annihilation.  God  said :  "  Abraham !  "  The 
old  man  answered :  "  Here  I  am."  God  said  to  him : 
"  Take  thy  son,  thy  only  son  Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest, 
and  get  thee  into  the  land  of  Moriah,  and  offer  him 
there  as  a  burnt-ofifering."  In  other  words,  slay  him ; 
cut  his  body  into  fragments ;  put  the  fragments  on 
the  wood;  set  fire  to  the  wood,  and  let  Isaac's  body 
be  consumed. 

"Atrocity!  Murder!  "  says  some  one.  "  Not  so," 
said  Abraham.  I  hear  him  soliloquize :  "  Here  is  the 
boy  on  whom  I  have  depended!  Oh,  how  I  loved 
him !  He  was  given  in  answer  to  prayer,  and  now 
must  I  surrender  him  ?  O  Isaac,  my  son !  Isaac,  how 
shall  I  part  with  you?  But  then  it  is  always  safer  to 
do  as  God  asks  me  to ;  I  have  been  in  dark  places  be- 
fore, and  God  delivered  me.  I  will  implicitly  do  as 
God  has  told  me,  although  it  is  very  dark.  I  can't 
see  my  way,  but  I  know  God  makes  no  mistakes,  and 
to  him  I  commit  myself  and  my  darling  son." 

Early  in  the  morning  there  is  a  stir  around 
Abraham's  tent.  A  beast  of  burden  is  fed  and  sad- 
dled. Abraham  makes  no  disclosure  of  the  awful 
secret.    At  the  break  of  day  he  says :    "  Come,  come, 

320  VOL.  XI. 


Isaac  Rescued 

Isaac,  get  up !  We  are  going  off  on  a  two  or  three 
days'  journey."  I  hear  the  ax  hewing  and  spUtting 
amid  the  wood  until  the  sticks  are  made  the  right 
length  and  the  right  thickness,  and  then  they  are  fast- 
ened on  the  beast  of  burden.  They  pass  on  —  there 
are  four  of  them  —  Abraham,  the  father;  Isaac,  the 
son ;  and  two  servants.  Going  along  the  road,  I  see 
Isaac  looking  up  into  his  father's  face,  and  saying: 
"  Father,  what  is  the  matter  ?  Are  you  not  well  ?  Has 
anything  happened?  Are  you  tired?  Lean  on  my 
arm."  Then,  turning  around  to  the  servants,  the  son 
says :  "  Ah !  father  is  getting  old,  and  he  has  had 
trouble  enough  in  other  days  to  kill  him." 

The  third  morning  has  come,  and  it  is  the  day  of 
the  tragedy.  The  two  servants  are  left  with  the  beast 
of  burden,  while  Abraham  and  his  son  Isaac,  as  was 
the  custom  of  good  people,  in  those  times,  went  up 
on  the  hill  to  sacrifice  to  the  Lord.  The  wood  is 
taken  off  the  beast's  back,  and  put  on  Isaac's  back. 
Abraham  has  in  one  hand  r  pan  of  coals  or  a  lamp, 
and  in  the  other  a  sharp,  keen  knife.  Here  are  all  the 
appliances  for  sacrifice,  you  say.  No,  there  is  one 
thing  wanting;  there  is  no  victim  —  no  pigeon  or 
heifer  or  lamb.  Isaac,  not  knowing  that  he  is  to  be 
the  victim,  looks  up  into  his  father's  face,  and  asks  a 
question  which  must  have  cut  the  old  man  to  the 
bone :  "  My  father !  "  The  father  said :  "  My  son, 
Isaac,  here  I  am."  The  son  said :  "  Behold  the  fire 
and  the  wood,  but  where  is  the  lamb  ?  "  The  father's 
lip  quivered,  and  his  heart  fainted,  and  his  knees 
knocked  together,  and  his  entire  body,  mind,  and 
soul  shivered  in  sickening  anguish  as  he  struggles  to 
gain  equipoise ;  for  he  does  not  want  to  break  down. 
And  then  he  looks  into  his  son's  face,  with  a  thou- 
sand rushing  tendernesses  and  say :  *'  My  son,  God 
will  provide  himself  a  lamb." 
VOL.  XI.  321 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

The  twain  are  now  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  the  place 
which  is  to  be  famous  for  a  most  transcendent  oc- 
currence. They  gather  some  stones  out  of  the  field, 
and  build  an  altar  three  or  four  feet  high.  Then 
they  take  this  wood  oflf  Isaac's  back  and  sprinkle  it 
over  the  stones,  so  as  to  help  and  invite  the  flame. 
The  altar  is  done  —  it  is  all  done.  Isaac  has  helped 
to  build  it.  With  his  father  he  has  discussed  whether 
the  top  of  the  table  is  even,  and  whether  the  wood 
is  properly  prepared.  Then  there  is  a  pause.  The 
son  looks  around  to  see  if  there  is  not  some  living 
animal  that  can  be  caught  and  butchered  for  the  of- 
fering. Abraham  tries  to  choke  down  his  fatherly 
feelings  and  suppress  his  grief,  in  order  that  he  may 
break  to  his  son  the  terrific  news  that  he  is  to  be  the 
victim. 

Ah !  Isaac  never  looked  more  beautiful  than  on 
that  day  to  his  father.  As  the  old  man  ran  his  ema- 
ciated fingers  through  his  son's  hair,  he  said  to  him- 
self :  "  How  shall  I  give  him  up  ?  What  will  his 
mother  say  when  I  come  back  without  my  boy?  I 
thought  he  would  have  been  the  comfort  of  my  de- 
clining days.  I  thought  he  would  have  been  the  hope 
of  ages  to  come.  Beautiful  and  loving,  and  yet  to  die 
under  my  own  hand.  Oh,  God!  is  there  not  some 
other  sacrifice  that  will  do?  Take  my  life,  and  spare 
his!  Pour  out  my  blood,  and  save  Isaac  for  his 
mother  and  the  world !  "  But  this  was  an  inward 
struggle.  The  father  controls  his  feelings,  and  looks 
into  his  son's  face,  and  says :  "  Isaac,  must  I  tell  you 
all  ?  "  His  son  said :  "  Yes,  father.  I  thought  you 
had  something  on  your  mind;  tell  it."  The  father 
said :  "  My  son,  Isaac,  thou  art  the  lamb !  "  "  Oh," 
you  say,  "  why  did  not  that  young  man,  if  he  was 
twenty  or  thirty  years  of  age,  smite  into  the  dust  his 

322  VOL.  XI. 


Isaac  Rescued 

infirm  father  ?  He  could  have  done  it."  Ah !  Isaac  may 
have  had  some  intimation  by  this  time  that  the  scene 
was  typical  of  a  Messiah  who  was  to  come,  and  so  he 
made  no  struggle.  They  fell  on  each  other's  necks, 
and  wailed  out  the  parting.  Awful  and  matchless 
scene  of  the  wilderness.  The  rocks  echo  back  the 
breaking  of  their  hearts.  The  cry :  "  My  son  1  my 
son !  "    The  answer :    "  My  father !  my  father !  " 

Do  not  compare  this,  as  some  people  have  to 
Agamemnon,  willing  to  offer  up  his  daughter,  Iphi- 
genia,  to  please  the  gods.  There  is  nothing  compara- 
ble to  this  wonderful  obedience  to  the  true  God.  You 
know  that  victims  for  sacrifice  were  always  bound, 
so  that  they  might  not  struggle  away.  Rawlings,  the 
martyr,  when  he  was  dying  for  Christ's  sake,  said  to 
the  blacksmith  who  held  the  manacles :  "  Fasten 
those  chains  tight  now,  for  my  flesh  may  struggle 
mightily."  So  Isaac's  arms  are  fastened,  his  feet  are 
tied.  The  old  man,  rallying  all  his  strength,  lifts  him 
on  to  a  pile  of  wood.  Fastening  a  thong  on  one  side 
of  the  altar,  he  makes  it  span  the  body  of  Isaac,  and 
fastens  the  thong  at  the  other  side  of  the  altar,  and 
another  thong,  and  another  thong.  There  is  the 
lamp  flickering  in  the  wind,  ready  to  be  put  under 
the  brush-wood  of  the  altar.  There  is  the  knife,  sharp 
and  keen.  Abraham  —  struggling  with  his  mortal 
feeUngs  on  the  one  side,  and  the  commands  of  God 
on  the  other  —  takes  that  knife,  rubs  the  flat  of  it 
on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  cries  to  God  for  help,  comes 
up  to  the  side  of  the  altar,  puts  a  parting  kiss  on  the 
brow  of  his  boy,  takes  a  message  from  him  for  mother 
and  home,  and  then,  lifting  the  glittering  weapon  for 
the  plunge  of  the  death-stroke  —  his  muscles  knitting 
for  the  work  —  the  hand  begins  to  descend.  It  falls ! 
Not ,  on^  the.  heart  of  Isaac,  but  on  the  arm  of  God, 

VOL.*XI.^  323^ 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

who  arrests  the  stroke,  making  the  wilderness  quake 
with  the  cry :  "  Abraham !  Abraham !  lay  not  thy 
hand  upon  the  lad,  nor  do  him  any  harm !  " 

What  is  this  sound  back  in  the  woods !  It  is  a 
crackling  as  of  tree  branches,  a  bleating  and  a  strug- 
gle. Go,  Abraham,  and  see  what  it  is.  Oh,  it  was 
a  ram  that,  going  through  the  woods,  has  its  crooked 
horns  fastened  and  entangled  in  the  brushwood,  and 
could  not  get  loose;  and  Abraham  seizes  it  gladly, 
and  quickly  unloosens  Isaac  from  the  altar,  puts  the 
ram  on  in  his  place,  sets  the  lamp  under  the  brush- 
wood of  the  altar,  and  as  the  dense  smoke  of  the 
sacrifice  begins  to  rise,  the  blood  rolls  down  the  sides 
of  the  altar,  and  drops  hissing  into  the  fire,  and  I 
hear  the  words :  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world." 

Well,  what  are  you  going  to  get  out  of  this? 
There  is  an  aged  minister  of  the  Gospel.  He  says : 
"  I  should  get  out  of  it  that  when  God  tells  you  to  do 
a  thing,  whether  it  seems  reasonable  to  you  or  not, 
go  ahead  and  do  it.  Here  Abraham  could  not  have 
been  mistaken.  God  did  not  speak  so  indistinctly 
that  it  was  not  certain  whether  he  called  Sarah,  or 
Abraham,  or  somebody  else ;  but  with  divine  articula- 
tion, divine  intonation,  divine  emphasis,  he  said: 
'  Abraham ! '  Abraham  rushed  blindly  ahead  to  do 
his  duty,  knowing  that  things  would  come  out  right. 
Likewise  do  so  yourselves.  There  is  a  mystery  of 
your  life.  There  is  some  burden  you  have  to  carry. 
You  do  not  know  why  God  has  put  it  on  you.  There 
is  some  persecution,  some  trial,  and  you  do  not  know 
why  God  allows  it.  There  is  a  work  for  you  to  do, 
and  you  have  not  enough  grace,  you  think,  to  do  it. 
Do  as  Abraham  did.  Advance,  and  do  your  whole 
duty.  Be  willing  to  give  up  Isaac,  and  perhaps  you 
will  not  have  to  give  up  anything.    '  Jehovah-jireh  '  — 

324  VOL.  XI. 


Isaac   Rescued 

the  Lord  will  provide."     A  capital  lesson  this  old 
minister  gives  us. 

Out  yonder  is  an  aged  woman ;  the  light  of  heaven 
in  her  face;  she  is  half-way  through  the  door;  she 
has  her  hand  on  the  pearl  of  the  gate.  Mother,  what 
would  you  get  out  of  this  subject?  "  Oh,"  she  says, 
"  I  would  learn  that  it  is  in  the  last  pinch  that  God 
comes  to  the  relief.  You  see  the  altar  was  ready, 
and  Isaac  was  fastened  on  it,  and  the  knife  was  lifted ; 
and  just  at  the  last  moment  God  broke  in  and  stopped 
proceedings.  So  it  has  been  in  my  Hfe  of  seventy- 
five  years.  Why,  sir,  there  was  a  time  when  the  flour 
was  all  out  of  the  house ;  and  I  set  the  table  at  noon 
and  had  nothing  to  put  on  it ;  but  five  minutes  of  one 
o'clock  a  loaf  of  bread  came.  The  Lord  will  pro- 
vide. My  son  was  very  sick,  and  I  said :  *  Dear 
Lord,  you  do  not  mean  to  take  him  away  from  me, 
do  you  ?  Please,  Lord,  do  not  take  him  away.  Why, 
there  are  neighbors  who  have  three  and  four  sons; 
this  is  my  only  son ;  this  *is  my  Isaac.  Lord,  you 
will  not  take  him  away  from  me,  will  you  ? '  But  I 
saw  he  was  getting  worse  and  worse  all  the  time ; 
and  I  turned  round  and  prayed,  until  after  a  while  I 
felt  submissive,  and  I  could  say :  *  Thy  will,  O  Lord, 
be  done ! '  The  doctors  gave  him  up,  and  we  all  gave 
him  up.  And,  as  was  the  custom  in  those  times,  we 
had  made  the  grave-clothes,  and  we  were  whispering 
about  the  last  exercises  when  I  looked,  and  I  saw 
some  perspiration  on  his  brow,  showing  that  the  fever 
had  broken,  and  he  spoke  to  us  so  naturally  that  I 
knew  he  was  going  to  get  well.  He  did  get  well,  and 
my  son  Isaac,  who,  I  thought,  was  going  to  be  slain 
and  consumed  of  disease,  was  loosened  from  that  altar. 
And,  bless  your  souls,  that  has  been  so  for  seventy- 
five  years ;  and  if  my  voice  were  not  so  weak,  and  if 
I  could  see  better,  I  could  preach  to  you  younger 
VOL,  XI.  32s 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

people  a  sermon ;  for  though  I  cannot  see  much,  I 
can  see  this,  whenever  you  get  into  a  tough  place, 
and  your  heart  is  breaking,  if  you  will  look  a  little 
farther  into  the  woods,  you  will  see,  caught  in  the 
branches,  a  substitute  and  a  deliverance.  *  My  son, 
God  will  provide  himself  a  lamb/  " 

Thank  you,  mother,  for  that  short  sermon.  I 
could  preach  back  to  you  for  a  minute  or  two  and 
say,  never  do  you  fear.  I  wish  I  had  half  as  good  a 
hope  of  heaven  as  you  have.  Do  not  fear,  mother; 
whatever  happens,  no  harm  will  ever  happen  to  you. 
I  was  going  up  a  long  flight  of  stairs ;  and  I  saw 
an  aged  woman,  very  decrepit,  and  with  a  cane,  creep- 
ing on  up.  She  made  but  very  little  progress,  and 
I  felt  very  exuberant ;  and  I  said  to  her :  "  Why, 
mother,  that  is  no  way  to  go  upstairs;"  and  I  threw 
my  arms  around  her  and  I  carried  her  up  and  put 
her  down  on  the  landing  at  the  top  of  the  stairs.  She 
said :  "  Thank  you,  thank  you ;  I  am  very  thankful." 
O  mother,  when  you  get  through  this  life's  work  and 
you  want  to  go  upstairs  and  rest  in  the  good  place 
that  God  has  provided  for  you,  you  will  not  have  to 
climb  up  —  you  will  not  have  to  crawl  up  painfully. 
The  two  arms  that  were  stretched  on  the  Cross  will 
be  flung  around  you,  and  you  will  be  hoisted  with  a 
glorious  Uft  beyond  all  weariness  and  all  struggle. 
May  the  God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  be  with  you  until 
you  see  the  Lamb  on  the  hilltop. 

Now,  that  aged  minister  has  made  a  suggestion, 
and  this  aged  woman  has  made  a  suggestion ;  I  will 
make  a  suggestion:  Isaac  going  up  the  hill  makes 
me  think  of  the  great  sacrifice.  Isaac,  the  only  son  of 
Abraham.  Jesus,  the  only  Son  of  God.  On  those 
two  "  onlys  "  I  build  a  tearful  emphasis.  O  Isaac !  O 
Jesus !  But  this  last  sacrifice  was  a  more  tremendous 
one.    When  the  knife  was  lifted  over  Calvary,  there 

326  VOL.  XI. 


Isaac  Rescued 

was  no  voice  that  cried  "  Stop !  "  and  no  hand  ar- 
rested it.  Sharp,  keen,  and  tremendous,  it  cut  down 
through  nerve  and  artery  until  the  blood  sprayed  the 
faces  of  the  executioners,  and  the  mid-day  sun 
dropped  a  veil  of  cloud  over  its  face  because  it  could 
not  endure  the  spectacle.  O  Isaac,  of  Mount  Moriah  ! 
O  Jesus,  of  Mount  Calvary !  Better  could  God  have 
throv/n  away  into  annihilation  a  thousand  worlds  than 
to  have  sacrificed  his  only  Son.  It  was  not  one  of 
ten  sons  —  it  was  his  only  Son.  If  he  had  not  given 
up  him,  you  and  I  would  have  perished.  "  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  —  "I  stop 
there,  not  because  I  have  forgotten  the  quotation,  but 
because  I  want  to  think.  "  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life."  Great  God!  break  my  heart  at  the 
thought  of  that  sacrifice.  Isaac  the  only,  typical  of 
Jesus  the  Only. 

You  see  Isaac  going  up  the  hill  and  carrying  the 
wood.  O  Abraham,  why  not  take  the  load  off  the 
boy?  If  he  is  going  to  die  so  soon,  why  not  make 
his  last  hours  easy  ?  Abraham,  all  unconscious  of  the 
fact,  was  furnishing  a  type  that  future  ages  would 
understand.  We  see  now  that  in  carrying  that  wood 
up  Mount  Moriah,  Isaac  was  to  be  a  symbol  of  Christ 
carrying  his  own  cross  up  Calvary.  I  do  not  know 
how  heavy  that  cross  was  —  whether  it  was  made  of 
oak  or  acacia  or  Lebanon  cedar.  I  suppose  it  may 
have  weighed  one  or  two  or  three  hundred  pounds. 
That  was  the  lightest  part  of  the  burden.  All  the  sins 
and  sorrows  of  the  world  were  wound  around  that 
cross.  The  heft  of  one,  the  heft  of  two,  worlds ;  earth 
and  hell  were  on  his  shoulders.  O  Isaac,  carrying 
the  wood  of  sacrifice  up  Mount  Moriah  1  O  Jesus, 
carrying  the  wood  of  sacrifice  up  Mount  Calvary,  the 
VOL.  XI.  327 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

agonies  of  earth  and  hell  wrapped  around  that  cross ! 
I  shall  never  think  of  the  heavy  load  on  Isaac's  back, 
that  I  shall  not  think  of  the  crushing  load  on  Christ's 
back.  For  whom  that  load  ?  For  you.  For  you.  For 
me.  For  me.  Would  that  all  the  tears  that  we  have  ever 
wept  over  our  sorrows  had  been  saved  until  now,  and 
that  we  might  now  pour  them  out  on  the  lacerated 
back  and  feet  and  heart  of  the  Son  of  God. 

You  say :  "  If  this  young  man  was  twenty  or 
thirty  years  of  age,  why  did  not  he  resist?  Why  was 
it  not  Isaac  binding  Abraham  instead  of  Abraham 
binding  Isaac?  The  muscle  in  Isaac's  arm  was 
stronger  than  the  muscle  in  Abraham's  withered  arm. 
No  young  man  twenty-five  years  of  age  would  sub- 
mit to  have  his  father  fasten  him  to  a  pile  of  wood 
with  intention  of  burning."  Isaac  was  a  willing  sac- 
rifice, and  so  a  type  of  Christ  who  willingly  came  to 
save  the  world.  If  all  the  armies  of  heaven  had  re- 
solved to  force  Christ  out  from  the  gate,  they  could 
not  have  done  it.  Christ  was  equal  with  God.  If  all 
the  battalions  of  glory  had  armed  themselves  and  re- 
solved to  put  Christ  forth  and  make  him  come  out 
and  save  this  world  they  could  not  have  succeeded  in 
it.  With  one  stroke  he  would  have  toppled  over  an- 
gelic and  archangelic  dominion. 

But  there  was  one  thing  that  the  Omnipotent 
Christ  could  not  stand.  Our  sorrows  mastered 
him.  He  could  not  bear  to  see  the  world  die  with- 
out an  offer  of  pardon  and  help,  and  if  all  heaven 
had  armed  itself  to  keep  him  back,  if  the  gates  of 
life  had  been  bolted  and  double-barred,  Christ  would 
have  flung  the  everlasting  doors  from  their  hinges, 
and  would  have  sprung  forth,  scattering  the  hinder- 
ing hosts  of  heaven  like  chaff  before  the  whirlwind, 
as  he  cried :  *'  Lo !  I  come  to  suffer.  Lo !  I  come  to 
die."  Christ  —  a  willing  sacrifice.  Willing  to  take 
Bethlehem  humiUation,  and  Sanhedrin  outrage,  and 

328  VOL.  XI. 


Isaac  Rescued  ^ 

whipping-post  maltreatment,  and  Golgotha  butchery. 
Willing  to  be  bound.  Willing  to  suffer.  Willing  to 
die.    Willing  to  save. 

How  does  this  affect  you  ?  Do  not  your  very  best 
impulses  bound  out  toward  this  pain-struck  Christ? 
Get  down  at  his  feet,  O  ye  people!  Put  your  lips 
against  the  wound  on  his  right  foot  and  help  kiss 
away  the  pang.  Wipe  the  foam  from  his  dying  lip. 
Get  under  the  cross  until  you  feel  the  baptism  of  his 
rushing  tears.  Take  him  into  your  heart  with  warm- 
est love  and  undying  enthusiasm.  By  your  resistances 
you  have  abused  him  long  enough.  Christ  is  will- 
ing to  save  you.  Are  you  willing  to  be  saved?  It 
seems  to  me  as  if  this  moment  were  throbbing  with 
the  invitations  of  an  all-compassionate  God. 

I  have  been  told  that  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Mark's 
stands  in  a  quarter  in  the  center  of  the  city  of  Venice, 
and  that  when  the  clock  strikes  twelve  at  noon,  all 
the  birds  from  the  city  and  the  regions  round  about 
the  city  fly  to  the  square  and  settle  down.  It  came  in 
this  wise :  A  large-hearted  woman  passing  one  noon- 
day across  the  square,  saw  some  birds  shivering  in 
the  cold,  and  she  scattered  some  crumbs  of  bread 
among  them.  The  next  day,  at  the  same  hour,  she 
scattered  more  crumbs  of  bread  among  them,  and 
so  on  from  year  to  year  until  the  day  of  her  death. 
In  her  will  she  bequeathed  a  certain  amount  of  money 
to  keep  up  the  same  practice,  and  now,  at  the  first 
stroke  of  the  bell  at  noon,  the  birds  begin  to  come 
there,  and  when  the  clock  has  struck  twelve,  the 
square  is  covered  with  them.  How  beautifully  sug- 
gestive! Christ  comes  out  to  feed  thy  soul  to-day. 
The  more  hungry  you  feel  yourselves  to  be,  the  bet- 
ter it  is.  It  is  noon  and  the  Gospel  clock  strikes 
twelve.  Come  in  flocks!  Come  as  doves  to  the 
window !  All  the  air  is  filled  with  the  liquid  chime : 
Come!  Come!  Come! 
VOL.  XI.  329 


PAIN 

Rev.,  21 :  4:     "Neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain. 


PAIN 

Rev.,  21 :  4:     "Neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain." 

At  the  close  of  a  period  of  much  suffering,  many 
perishing  day  by  day  under  the  heat,  and  thousands 
of  cases  unreported,  save  to  the  mothers  and  the  wives 
and  the  daughters  who  received  the  faint  and  ex- 
hausted ones,  and  while  there  are  many  wounded  of 
great  and  appalling  casualty,  in  midsummer  I  preach 
a  sermon  consolatory.  The  first  question  that  you  ask 
when  about  to  change  your  residence  to  any  city  is, 
"  What  is  the  health  of  the  place?  is  it  shaken  of  ter- 
rible disorders?  what  are  the  bills  of  mortality?  what 
is  the  death-rate  ?  how  high  rises  the  thermometer  ?  " 
And  am  I  not  reasonable  in  asking,  What  are  the  sani- 
tary conditions  of  the  heavenly  city  into  which  we  all 
hope  to  move?  My  text  answers  it  by  saying, 
"  Neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain." 

First,  I  remark,  there  will  be  no  pain  of  disappoint- 
ment in  heaven.  If  I  could  put  the  picture  of  what 
you  anticipated  of  life  when  you  began  it  beside  the 
picture  of  what  you  have  realized,  I  would  find  a  great 
difference.  You  have  stumbled  upon  great  disap- 
pointments. Perhaps  you  expected  riches,  and  you 
have  worked  hard  enough  to  gain  them;  you  have 
planned  and  worried  and  persisted  until  your  hands 
were  worn  and  your  brain  was  racked  and  your  heart 
fainted,  and  at  the  end  of  this  long  strife  with  mis- 
fortune you  find  that  if  you  have  not  been  positively 
defeated  it  has  been  a  drawn  battle.  It  is  still  tug 
and  tussle  —  this  year  losing  what  you  gained  last, 
financial  uncertainties  pulling  down  faster  than  you 
VOL.  XI.  333 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

build.  For  perhaps  twenty  or  thirty  years  you  have 
been  running  your  craft  straight  into  the  teeth  of  the 
wind.  Perhaps  you  have  had  domestic  disappoint- 
ment. Your  children,  upon  whose  education  you  lav- 
ished your  hard-earned  dollars,  have  not  turned  out  as 
expected.  Notwithstanding  all  your  counsels  and 
prayers  and  painstaking  they  will  not  do  right.  Many 
a  good  father  has  had  a  bad  boy.  Absalom  trod  on 
David's  heart.  That  mother  never  imagined  all  this 
as  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  she  sat  by  that  child's 
cradle. 

Your  life  has  been  a  chapter  of  disappointments. 
But,  come  with  me,  and  I  will  show  you  a  different 
scene.  By  God's  grace,  entering  the  other  city  you 
will  never  again  have  a  blasted  hope.  The  most  jubi- 
lant of  expectations  will  not  reach  the  realization. 
Coming  to  the  top  of  one  hill  of  joy,  there  will  be 
other  heights  rising  upon  the  vision.  This  song  of 
transport  will  but  lift  you  to  higher  anthems;  the 
sweetest  choral  but  a  prelude  to  more  glorious  har- 
mony ;  all  things  better  than  you  had  anticipated  —  the 
robe  richer,  the  crown  brighter,  the  temple  grander, 
the  throng  mightier. 

Further,  I  remark,  there  will  be  no  pain  of  weari- 
ness. It  is  now  twelve  or  fifteen  hours  since  you  quit 
work,  but  many  of  you  are  unrested,  some  from  over- 
work, and  some  from  dulness  of  trade,  the  latter  more 
exhausting  than  the  former.  Your  ankles  ache,  your 
spirits  flag,  you  want  rest.  Are  these  wheels  always 
to  turn?  these  shuttles  to  fly?  these  axes  to  hew?  these 
shovels  to  delve?  these  pens  to  fly?  these  books  to  be 
posted?  these  goods  to  be  sold?  Ah!  the  great  holiday 
approaches.  No  more  curse  of  taskmasters.  No 
more  stooping  until  the  back  aches.  No  more  calcu- 
lation until  the  brain  is  bewildered.  No  more  pain. 
No  more  carpentry,  for  the  mansions  are  all  built.     No 

334  VOL.  XI. 


Pain 

more  masonry,  for  the  walls  are  all  reared.  No  more 
diamond-cutting,  for  the  gems  are  all  set.  No  more 
gold-beating,  for  the  crowns  are  all  completed.  No 
more  agriculture,  for  the  harvests  are  spontaneous. 

Further,  there  will  be  no  more  pain  of  poverty. 
It  is  a  hard  thing  to  be  really  poor,  to  have  your  coat 
wear  out,  and  no  money  to  get  another ;  to  have  your 
flour-barrel  empty,  and  nothing  to  buy  bread  with  for 
your  children;  to  live  in  an  unhealthy  row,  and  no 
means  to  change  your  habitation;  to  have  your  child 
sick  with  some  mysterious  disease,  and  not  be  able  to 
secure  eminent  medical  ability;  to  have  son  or  daugh- 
ter begin  the  world,  and  you  not  have  anything  to 
help  them  in  starting;  with  a  mind  capable  of  research 
and  high  contemplation,  to  be  perpetually  fixed  on 
questions  of  mere  livelihood.  Poets  try  to  throw  a 
romance  about  the  poor  man's  cot;  but  there  is  no 
romance  about  it.  Poverty  is  hard,  cruel,  unrelent- 
ing. But  Lazarus  waked  up  without  his  rags  and  his 
diseases,  and  so  all  of  Christ's  poor  wake  up  at  last 
without  any  of  their  disadvantages  —  no  almshouses, 
for  they  are  all  princes;  no  rents  to  pay,  for  the  resi- 
dence is  gratuitous;  no  garments  to  buy,  for  the  robes 
are  divinely  fashioned;  no  seats  in  church  for  poor 
folks,  but  equality  among  temple  worshipers.  No 
hovels,  no  hard  crusts,  no  insufficient  apparel.  "  They 
shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more,  neither 
shall  the  sun  light  on  them  nor  any  heat."  No  more 
pain! 

Further,  there  will  be  no  pain  of  parting.  All 
these  associations  must  some  time  break  up.  We 
clasp  hands  and  walk  together,  and  talk  and  laugh 
and  weep  together;  but  we  must  after  a  while  separate. 
Your  grave  will  be  in  one  place,  mine  in  another.  We 
will  look  each  other  full  in  the  face  for  the  last  time. 
We  will  be  sitting  together  some  evening,  or  walking 
VOL.  XI.  335 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

together  some  day,  and  nothing  will  be  unusual  in  our 
appearance  or  our  conversation ;  but  God  knows  that 
it  is  the  last  time;  and  messengers  from  eternity,  on 
their  errand  to  take  us  away,  know  it  is  the  last  time; 
and  in  heaven,  where  they  make  ready  for  our  depart- 
ing spirits,  they  know  it  is  the  last  time. 

Oh,  the  long  agony  of  earthly  separation!  It  is 
awful  to  stand  in  your  nursery  fighting  death  back 
from  the  couch  of  your  child,  and  try  to  hold  fast  the 
little  one,  and  see  all  the  time  that  he  is  getting  weaker, 
and  the  breath  is  shorter,  and  make  outcry  to  God  to 
help  us,  and  to  the  doctors  to  save  him,  and  see  it  is  of 
no  avail,  and  then  to  know  that  his  spirit  is  gone,  and 
that  you  have  nothing  left  but  the  casket  that  held 
the  jewel,  and  that  in  two  or  three  days  you  must  even 
put  that  away,  and  walk  around  about  the  house  and 
find  it  desolate,  sometimes  feeling  rebellious,  and  then 
to  resolve  to  feel  differently,  and  to  resolve  on  self- 
control,  and  just  as  you  have  come  to  what  you  think 
is  perfect  self-control,  to  suddenly  come  upon  some 
little  sack  or  picture  or  shoe  half  worn  out,  and  how 
all  the  floods  of  the  soul  burst  in  one  wild  wail  of 
agony!  Oh,  my  God,  how  hard  it  is  to  part,  to  close 
the  eyes  that  never  can  look  merry  at  our  coming, 
to  kiss  the  hand  that  will  never  again  do  us  a  kind- 
ness. I  know  religion  gives  great  consolation  in  such 
an  hour,  and  we  ought  to  be  comforted;  but  anyhow 
and  anyway  you  make  it,  it  is  awful.  On  steamboat 
wharf  and  at  rail-car  window  we  may  smile  when  we 
say  farewell;  but  these  good-byes  at  the  death-bed, 
they  just  take  hold  of  the  heart  with  iron  pincers,  and 
tear  it  out  by  the  roots  until  all  the  fibers  quiver  and 
curl  in  the  torture,  and  drop  thick  blood.  These  sepa- 
rations are  wine-presses  into  which  our  hearts,  like 
red  clusters,  are  thrown,  and  then  trouble  turns  the 
windlass  round  and  round  until  we  are  utterly  crushed, 

336  VOL.  XI. 


Pain 

and  have  no  more  capacity  to  suffer,  and  we  stop  cry- 
ing because  we  have  wept  all  our  tears. 

On  every  street,  at  every  doorstep,  by  every  couch, 
there  have  been  partings.  But  once  past  the  heavenly 
portals,  and  you  are  through  with  such  scenes  for- 
ever. In  that  land  there  are  many  hand-claspings  and 
embracings,  but  only  in  recognition.  That  great  home 
circle  never  breaks.  Once  find  your  comrades  there, 
and  you  have  them  forever.  No  crape  floats  from  the 
door  of  that  bUssful  residence.  No  cleft  hillside  where 
the  dead  sleep.  All  awake,  wide  awake,  and  forever. 
No  pushing  out  of  emigrant  ship  for  foreign  shore. 
No  tolHng  of  bell  as  the  funeral  passes.  Whole  gener- 
ations in  glory.  Hand  to  hand,  heart  to  heart,  joy  to 
joy.  No  creeping  up  the  limbs  of  the  death-chill,  the 
feet  cold  until  hot  flannels  cannot  warm  them.  No 
rattle  of  sepulchral  gates.     No  parting,  no  pain. 

Further,  the  heavenly  city  will  have  no  pain  of 
body.  The  race  is  pierced  with  sharp  distresses.  The 
surgeon's  knife  must  cut.  The  dentist's  pincers  must 
pull.  Pain  is  fought  with  pain.  The  world  is  a  hos- 
pital. Scores  of  diseases,  like  vultures  contending  for 
a  carcass,  struggle  as  to  which  shall  have  it.  Our 
natures  are  infinitely  susceptible  to  suffering.  The 
eye,  the  foot,  the  hand,  with  immense  capacity  of 
anguish. 

The  little  child  meets  at  the  entrance  of  life  mani- 
fold diseases.  You  hear  the  shrill  cry  of  infancy  as 
the  lancet  strikes  into  the  swollen  gum.  You  see  its 
head  toss  in  consuming  fevers  that  take  more  than 
half  of  them  into  the  dust.  Old  age  passes,  dizzy  and 
weak  and  short-breathed  and  dim-sighted.  On  every 
northeast  wind  come  down  pleurisies  and  pneumonias. 
War  lifts  its  sword  and  hacks  away  the  life  of  whole 
generations.  The  hospitals  of  the  earth  groan  into  the 
ear  of  Grod  their  complaint.  Asiatic  choleras  and 
VOL.  XI.  3J7 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

ship-fevers  and  typhoids  and  London  plagues  make  the 
world's  knees  knock  together. 

Pain  has  gone  through  every  street,  and  up  every 
ladder,  and  down  every  shaft.  It  is  on  the  wave,  on 
the  mast,  on  the  beach.  Wounds  from  clip  of  ele- 
phant's tusk  and  adder's  sting  and  crocodile's  teeth 
and  horse's  hoof  and  wheel's  revolution.  We  gather 
up  the  infirmities  of  our  parents  and  transmit  to  our 
children  the  inheritance  augmented  by  our  own  sick- 
nesses, and  they  add  to  them  their  own  disorders,  to 
pass  the  inheritance  to  other  generations.  In  262  the 
plague  in  Rome  smote  into  the  dust  five  thousand  citi- 
zens daily.  In  544,  in  Constantinople,  one  thousand 
grave-diggers  were  not  enough  to  bury  the  dead.  In 
1813  the  ophthalmia  seized  the  whole  Prussian  army. 
At  times  the  earth  has  sweltered  with  suffering.  Count 
up  the  pains  of  Austerlitz,  where  thirty  thousand  fell ; 
of  Fontenoy,  where  one  hundred  thousand  fell;  of 
Chalons,  where  three  hundred  thousand  fell;  of  Ma- 
rius'  fight,  in  which  two  hundred  and  ninety  thousand 
fell;  of  the  tragedy  at  Herat,  where  Genghis  Khan 
massacred  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  of  Nishar,  where  he  slew  one  million  seven  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  thousand  people;  of  the  eighteen 
million  this  monster  sacrificed  in  fourteen  years,  as  he 
went  forth  to  do  as  he  declared,  to  exterminate  the 
entire  Chinese  nation  and  make  the  empire  a  pasture 
for  cattle.  Think  of  the  death-throes  of  the  five  mil- 
lion men  sacrificed  in  one  campaign  of  Xerxes. 
Think  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  that 
perished  in  the  siege  of  Ostend  ;  of  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dead  at  Acre;  of  one  million  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dead  in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem;  of  one  million 
eight  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  of  the  dead  at 
Troy,  and  then  complete  the  review  by  considering 
the  stupendous  estimate  of  Edmund  Burke,  that  the 

338  VOL.  XI. 


Pain 

loss  by  war  has  been  thirty-five  times  the  entire  then 
present  population  of  the  globe. 

Go  through  and  examine  the  lacerations,  the  gun- 
shot fractures,  the  saber  wounds,  the  gashes  of  the 
battle-ax,  the  slain  of  bombshell  and  exploded  mine 
and  falling  wall,  and  those  destroyed  under  the  gun- 
carriage  and  the  hoof  of  the  cavalry  horse,  the  burn- 
ing thirsts,  the  camp  fevers,  the  frosts  that  shivered, 
the  tropical  suns  that  smote.  Add  it  up,  gather  it  into 
one  line,  compress  it  into  one  word,  spell  it  in  one 
syllable,  clank  it  in  one  chain,  pour  it  out  in  one  groan, 
distill  it  into  one  tear. 

Ay,  the  world  has  writhed  in  six  thousand  years  of 
suffering.  Why  doubt  the  possibility  of  a  future 
world  of  suffering  when  we  see  the  tortures  that  have 
been  inflicted  in  this?  A  deserter  from  Sebastopol 
coming  over  to  the  army  of  the  allies  pointed  back  to 
the  fortress  and  said,  "  That  place  is  a  perfect  hell." 
Our  lexicographers,  aware  of  the  immense  necessity 
of  having  plenty  of  words  to  express  the  different 
shades  of  trouble,  have  strewn  over  their  pages  such 
words  as  "  annoyance,"  "  distress,"  "  grief,"  "  bitter- 
ness," "  heartache,"  "  misery,"  "  twinge,"  "  pang," 
"torture,"  "affliction,"  "anguish,"  "tribulation," 
"  wretchedness,"  "  woe."  But  I  have  a  glad  sound  for 
every  hospital,  for  every  sick  room,  for  every  lifelong 
invalid,  for  every  broken  heart.  "  There  shall  be  no 
more  pain."  Thank  God!  thank  God!  No  malarias 
float  in  the  air.  No  bruised  foot  treads  that  street. 
No  weary  arm.  No  painful  respiration.  No  hectic 
flush.  No  one  can  drink  of  that  healthy  fountain  and 
keep  faint-hearted  or  faint-headed.  He  whose  foot 
touches  that  pavement  becometh  an  athlete.  The  first 
kiss  of  that  summer  air  will  take  the  wrinkles  from  the 
old  man's  cheek.  Amid  the  multitude  of  songsters, 
not  one  diseased  throat.  The  first  flash  of  the  throne 
VOL.  XI.  339 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

will  scatter  the  darkness  of  those  who  were  born  blind. 
See,  the  lame  man,  leaps  as  a  hart,  and  the  dumb  sing. 
From  that  bath  of  infinite  delight  we  shall  step  forth, 
our  weariness  forgotten. 

Who  are  those  radiant  ones?  Why,  that  one  had 
his  jaw  shot  off  at  Fredericksburg;  that  one  lost  his 
eyes  in  a  powder  blast;  that  one  had  his  back  broken 
by  a  fall  from  the  ship's  halyards;  that  one  died  of 
gangrene  in  the  hospital.  No  more  pain.  Sure 
enough,  here  is  Robert  Hall,  who  never  before  saw  a 
well  day,  and  Edward  Payson,  whose  body  was  ever 
torn  of  distress,  and  Richard  Baxter,  who  passed 
through  untold  physical  torture.  All  well.  No  more 
pain.  Here,  too,  are  the  Theban  legion,  a  great  host 
of  six  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  put  to  the 
sword  for  Christ's  sake.  No  distortion  on  their  coun- 
tenances. No  fires  to  hurt  them,  or  floods  to  drown 
them,  or  racks  to  tear  them.  All  well.  Here  are  the 
Scotch  Covenanters,  none  to  hunt  them  now.  The 
dark  cave  and  imprecations  of  Lord  Claverhouse  ex- 
changed for  temple  service,  and  the  presence  of  him 
who  helped  Hugh  Latimer  out  of  the  fire.  All  well. 
No  more  pain. 

In  this  sermon  I  set  open  the  door  of  heaven  until 
there  blows  on  you  this  refreshing  breeze.  The  foun- 
tains of  God  have  made  it  cool,  and  the  gardens  have 
made  it  sweet.  I  do  not  know  that  Solomon  ever 
heard  on  a  hot  day,  the  ice  click  in  an  ice-pitcher,  but 
he  wrote  as  if  he  did  when  he  said,  "  As  cold  waters 
to  a  thirsty  soul,  so  is  good  news  from  a  far  country." 

Clambering  among  the  Green  Mountains  one  sum- 
mer, I  was  tired  and  hot  and  thirsty,  and  I  shall  not 
forget  how  refreshing  it  was  when,  after  a  while,  I 
heard  the  mountain  brook  tumbling  over  the  rocks.  I 
had  no  cup,  no  chalice,  so  I  got  down  on  my  knees 
and  face  to  drink.     Oh,  ye  climbers  on  the  journey, 

340  VOL.  XI. 


Pain 

with  cut  feet  and  parched  tongues  and  fevered  temples, 
listen  to  the  rumbling  of  sapphire  brooks,  amid  flow- 
ered banks,  over  golden  shelvings.  Listen!  "The 
Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  lead 
them  unto  living  fountains  of  water."  I  do  not  oflfer 
it  to  you  in  a  chalice.  To  take  this  you  must  bend. 
Get  down  on  your  knees  and  on  your  face,  and  drink 
out  of  this  great  fountain  of  God's  consolation.  "  And 
lo!  I  heard  a  voice  from  heaven,  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters." 


VOL.  XI.  341 


WHERE'S  MOTHER? 

Judges,   s:  28:     "The  mother  of   Sisera  looked  out  at  a 
window." 


WHERE'S  MOTHER? 

Judges,  5:  28:     "The  mother  of   Sisera  looked  out  at  a 
window." 

Spiked  to  the  ground  of  Jael's  tent  lay  the  dead 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Canaanitish  host,  General 
Sisera,  not  far  from  the  river  Kishon,  which  was  only 
a  dry  bed  of  pebbles  when  in  1889,  in  Palestine,  we 
crossed  it,  but  the  gullies  and  ravines  which  ran  into 
it  indicated  the  possibility  of  great  freshets  like  the  one 
at  the  time  of  the  text.  General  Sisera  had  gone  out 
with  nine  hundred  iron  chariots,  but  he  was  defeated, 
and,  his  chariot-wheels  interlocked  with  the  wheels  of 
other  chariots,  he  could  not  retreat  fast  enough;  and 
so  he  leaped  to  the  ground  and  ran  till,  exhausted,  he 
went  into  Jael's  tent  for  safety.  She  had  just  been 
churning,  and  when  he  asked  for  water  she  gave  him 
buttermilk,  which  in  the  East  is  considered  a  most  re- 
freshing drink.  Very  tired,  and  supposing  he  was  safe, 
he  went  to  sleep  upon  the  floor,  but  Jael,  who  had  re- 
solved upon  his  death,  took  a  tentpin,  long  and  round 
and  sharp,  and  a  hammer,  and  putting  the  sharp  end 
of  the  tentpin  to  the  temple  of  Sisera  with  one  hand, 
with  her  other  hand  she  lifted  the  hammer  and  brought 
it  down  on  the  head  of  the  pin  with  a  stout  stroke, 
when  Sisera  struggled  to  rise,  and  she  struck  him 
again,  and  he  struggled  to  rise,  and  the  third  time  she 
struck  him,  and  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Ca- 
naanitish host  lay  dead. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  distance  Sisera's  mother  sits 
amid  the  surroundings  of  wealth  and  pomp  and  scenes 
palatial,  waiting  for  his  return.  Every  mother  expects 
vol*  XI.  345 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

her  son  to  be  victorious,  and  this  mother  looked  out 
at  the  window  expecting  to  see  him  drive  up  in  his 
chariot,  followed  by  wagons  loaded  with  embroideries, 
and  also  by  regiments  of  men  vanquished  and  en- 
slaved. I  see  her  now  sitting  at  the  window,  in  high 
expectation.  She  watches  the  furthest  turn  of  the 
road.  She  looks  for  the  flying  dust  of  the  swift  hoofs. 
The  first  flash  of  the  bit  of  the  horse's  bridle  she  will 
catch. 

The  ladies  of  her  court  stand  round  and  she  tells 
them  of  what  they  shall  have  when  her  son  comes  up 
• —  chains  of  gold  and  carcanets  of  beauty,  and  dresses 
of  such  wondrous  fabric  and  splendor  as  the  Bible 
only  hints  at  but  leaves  us  to  imagine.  "  He  ought  to 
be  here  by  this  time,"  says  his  mother,  "  that  battle  is 
surely  over.  I  hope  that  freshet  of  the  river  Kishon 
has  not  impeded  him.  I  hope  those  strange  appear- 
ances we  saw  last  night  in  the  sky  were  not  ominous, 
when  the  stars  seemed  to  fight  in  their  courses.  No, 
no !  He  is  so  brave  in  battle  I  know  he  has  won  the 
day.  He  will  soon  be  here."  But  alas !  for  the  dis- 
appointed mother;  she  will  not  see  the  glittering  head- 
gear of  the  horses  at  full  gallop  bringing  her  son  home 
from  victorious  battle.  As  a  solitary  messenger  arriv- 
ing in  hot  haste  rides  up  to  the  window  at  which  the 
mother  of  Sisera  sits,  he  cries :  "  Your  armies  are  de- 
feated and  your  son  is  dead,"  there  is  a  scene  of  hor- 
ror and  anguish  from  which  we  turn  away. 

Now  you  see  the  full  meaning  of  my  short  text: 
"  The  mother  of  Sisera  looked  out  at  a  window." 
Well,  we  are  all  out  in  the  battle  of  life ;  it  is  raging  now 
and  the  most  of  us  have  a  mother  watching  and  wait- 
ing for  news  of  our  victory  or  defeat ;  if  she  be  not 
sitting  at  the  window  of  earth,  she  is  sitting  at  a  win- 
dow of  heaven,  and  she  is  going  to  hear  all  about  it. 

By  all  the  rules  of  war,  Sisera  ought  to  have  been 

^6  VQL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother? 

triumphant.  He  had  nine  hundred  iron  chariots  and 
a  host  many  thousands  vaster  than  the  armies  of  Israel. 
But  God  was  on  the  other  side ;  and  the  angry  freshets 
of  Kishon  and  the  hail,  the  lightning  and  the  unman- 
ageable war  horses  and  the  capsized  chariots  and  the 
stellar  panic  in  the  sky  discomfited  Sisera.  Josephus 
in  his  history  describes  the  scene  in  the  following 
words :  "  When  they  were  come  to  a  close  fight  there 
came  down  from  heaven  a  great  storm  with  a  vast 
quantity  of  rain  and  hail,  and  the  wind  blew  the  rain 
in  the  face  of  the  Canaanites,  and  so  darkened  their 
eyes  that  their  arrows  and  slings  were  of  no  advantage 
to  them,  nor  would  the  coldness  of  the  air  permit  the 
soldiers  to  make  use  of  their  swords:  while  this  storm 
did  not  so  much  incommode  the  Israelites,  because  it 
came  on  their  backs.  They  also  took  such  courage 
upon  the  conviction  that  God  was  assisting  them  that 
they  fell  upon  the  very  midst  of  their  enemies  and 
slew  a  great  number  of  them;  so  that  some  of  them 
fell  by  the  Israelites,  some  fell  by  their  own  horses 
which  were  put  into  disorder,  and  not  a  few  were  killed 
by  their  own  chariots."  Hence,  my  hearers,  the  bad 
news  brought  to  the  mother  of  Sisera  looking  out  at 
the  window.  And  our  mother,  whether  sitting  at  a 
window  of  earth  or  a  window  of  heaven,  will  hear  the 
news  of  our  victory  or  defeat.  Not  according  to  our 
talents  or  educational  equipment  or  our  opportunities, 
but  according  as  God  is  for  us  or  against  us. 

"  Where's  mother? "  is  the  question  most  fre- 
quently asked  in  many  households.  It  is  asked  by 
the  husband  as  well  as  the  child,  coming  in  at  night- 
fall. "  Where's  mother  ?  "  It  is  asked  by  the  little 
ones  when  they  get  hurt  and  come  in  crying  with  the 
pain:  "  Where's  mother?  "  It  is  asked  by  those  who 
have  seen  some  grand  sight  or  heard  some  good  news 
or  received  some  beautiful  gift:  "  Where's  mother?  " 
VOL.  XI.  347 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

She  sometimes  feels  wearied  by  the  question,  for  they 
all  ask  it  and  keep  asking  it  all  the  time.  She  is  not 
only  the  first  to  hear  every  case  of  perplexity,  but  she 
is  the  judge  in  every  court  of  domestic  appeal.  That 
is  what  puts  the  premature  wrinkles  on  so  many  ma- 
ternal faces,  and  powders  white  so  many  maternal 
foreheads.  You  see  it  is  a  question  that  keeps  on  for 
all  the  years  of  childhood.  It  comes  from  the  nursery 
and  from  the  evening  stand,  where  the  boys  and  girls 
are  learning  their  school  lesson,  and  from  the  starting 
out  in  the  morning,  when  the  cape  or  hat  or  slate  or 
book  or  overshoe  is  lost,  until  at  night,  all  out  of 
breath,  the  youngsters  come  in  and  shout  until  you 
can  hear  them  from  cellar  to  garret,  and  from  front 
door  to  the  back  fence  of  the  back  yard.  "  Where's 
mother?  "  Indeed  a  child's  life  is  so  full  of  that  ques- 
tion that  if  he  be  taken  away,  one  of  the  things  that 
the  mother  most  misses  and  the  silence  that  most  op- 
presses her,  is  the  absence  of  that  question,  which  she 
will  never  hear  on  earth  again,  except  she  hears  it  in 
a  dream  which  sometimes  restores  the  nursery  just  as 
it  was ;  and  then  the  voice  comes  back  so  natural,  and 
so  sweet,  and  so  innocent,  and  so  inquiring,  that  the 
dream  breaks  at  the  words,  "  Where's  mother?  " 

If  that  question  were  put  to  most  of  us  now,  we 
would  have  to  say,  if  we  spoke  truthfully,  that,  like 
Sisera's  mother,  she  is  at  the  palace  window.  She 
has  become  a  queen  unto  God  forever,  and  she  is  pull- 
ing back  the  rich  folds  of  the  King's  upholstery  to 
look  down  at  us.  We  are  not  told  the  particulars 
about  the  residence  of  Sisera's  mother,  but  there  is  in 
that  scene  in  the  Book  of  Judges  so  much  about  em- 
broideries and  needlework  and  ladies  in  waiting  that 
we  know  her  residence  must  have  been  princely  and 
palatial.  So  we  have  no  minute  and  particular 
description  of  the  palace  at  whose  window  our  glorified 

348  VOL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother  ? 

mother  sits,  but  there  is  so  much  in  the  closing  chap- 
ters of  the  good  old  Book  about  crowns,  and  pearls 
big  enough  to  make  a  gate  out  of  one  of  them,  new 
songs,  and  marriage  suppers,  and  harps,  and  white 
horses,  with  kings  in  the  stirrups,  and  golden  candle- 
sticks, that  we  know  the  heavenly  residence  of  our 
mother  is  superb,  is  unique,  is  colonnaded,  is  domed, 
is  embowered,  is  fountained,  is  glorified,  beyond  the 
power  of  pencil  or  pen  or  tongue  to  present,  and  in 
the  window  of  that  palace  the  mother  sits,  watching 
for  news  from  the  battle. 

What  a  contrast  between  that  celestial  surround- 
ing and  her  once  earthly  surroundings.  What  a  work 
to  bring  up  a  family,  in  the  old  time  way,  with  but 
little  or  no  hired  help,  except  perhaps  for  the  washing- 
day,  or  for  the  swine-slaughtering,  commonly  called 
"  the  killing-day."  There  was  then  no  reading  of 
elaborate  treatises  on  the  best  modes  of  rearing  chil- 
dren, and  then  leaving  it  all  to  hired  help,  with  one  or 
two  visits  a  day  to  the  nursery  to  see  if  the  principles 
adopted  are  being  carried  out.  The  most  of  those  old 
folks  did  the  sewing,  the  washing,  the  mending,  the 
darning,  the  patching,  the  millinery,  the  mantua-mak- 
ing,  the  housekeeping,  and  in  hurried  harvest  time 
helped  spread  the  hay  or  tread  down  the  load  in  the 
mow.  They  were  at  the  same  time  caterers,  tailors, 
doctors,  chaplains,  and  nurses  for  the  whole  household 
all  together  down  with  the  measles  or  scarlet  fever, 
or  round  the  house  with  whooping  coughs  and  croups 
and  run-round  fingers  and  earaches,  and  all  the  in- 
fantile distempers  which  at  some  time  swoop  upon 
every  large  household. 

Some  of  those  mothers  never  got  rested  in  this 
world.  Instead  of  the  self-rocking  cradles  of  our  day, 
which,  wound  up,  will  go  hour  after  hour  for  the  solace 
of  the  young  slumberer,  it  was  weary  foot  on  the 
VOL.  XI.  349 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

rocker  sometimes  half  the  day  or  half  the  night  — 
rock  —  rock  —  rock  —  rock.  Instead  of  our  drug- 
stores filled  with  all  the  wonders  of  materia  incdica, 
and  called  up  through  a  telephone,  with  them  the  only 
drugstore  short  of  four  miles'  ride  was  the  garret,  with 
its  bunches  of  peppermint  and  pennyroyal  and  catnip 
and  mustard  and  camomile  flowers,  which  were  ex- 
pected to  do  everything.  Just  think  of  it !  Fifty  years 
of  preparing  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper.  The  chief 
music  they  heard  was  that  of  spinning-wheel  and  rock- 
ing-chair. Fagged  out,  head-achy,  and  with  ankles 
swollen.  Those  old-fashioned  mothers  —  if  any  per- 
sons ever  fitted  appropriately  into  a  good,  easy  com- 
fortable heaven,  they  were  the  folks,  and  they  got  there 
and  they  are  rested.  They  wear  no  spectacles,  for 
they  have  their  third  sight  —  as  they  Hved  long 
enough  on  earth  to  get  their  second  sight  —  and  they 
do  not  have  to  pant  for  breath  after  going  up  the  em- 
erald stairs  of  the  Eternal  Palace,  at  whose  window 
they  now  sit  waiting  for  news  from  the  battle. 

But  if  anyone  keeps  on  asking  the  question 
"  Where's  mother?  "  I  answer,  she  is  in  your  present 
character.  The  probability  is  that  your  physical  feat- 
ures suggest  her.  If  there  be  seven  children  in  a 
household  at  least  six  of  them  look  like  their  mother, 
and  the  older  you  get,  the  more  you  will  look  like  her. 
But  I  speak  now  especially  of  your  character,  and  not 
of  your  looks.  This  is  easily  explained.  During  the 
first  ten  years  of  your  life  you  were  almost  all  the  time 
with  her,  and  your  father  you  saw  only  mornings  and 
nights.  There  are  no  years  in  any  life  so  important 
for  impression  as  the  first  ten.  Then  and  there  is  the 
impression  made  for  virtue  or  vice,  for  truth  or  false- 
hood, for  bravery  or  cowardice,  for  religion  or  skep- 
ticism. Suddenly  start  out  from  behind  a  door  and 
frighten  the  child,  and  you  may  shatter  his  nervous 

350  VOL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother? 

system  for  a  lifetime.  During  the  first  ten  years  you 
can  tell  him  enough  spook  stories  to  make  him  a 
coward  till  he  dies.  Act  before  him  as  though  Friday 
were  an  unlucky  day,  and  it  were  baleful  to  have  thir- 
teen at  the  table,  or  see  the  moon  over  the  left  shoul- 
der, and  he  will  never  recover  from  the  idiotic  super- 
stitions. You  may  give  that  girl  before  she  is  ten 
years  old  a  fondness  for  dress  that  will  make  her  a 
mere  "dummy  frame"  or  fashion-plate  for  forty  years. 
Ezekiel,  i6:  44:  "As  is  the  mother  so  is  her  daugh- 
ter." 

Before  one  decade  has  passed  you  can  decide 
whether  that  boy  shall  be  a  Shylock  or  a  George  Pea- 
body.  Boys  and  girls  are  generally  echoes  of  fathers 
and  mothers.  What  an  incoherent  thing  for  a  mother 
out  of  temper  to  punish  a  child  for  getting  mad,  or 
for  a  father  who  smokes  to  shut  his  boy  up  in  a  dark 
closet  because  he  has  found  him  with  an  old  stump  of 
a  cigar  in  his  mouth ;  or  for  that  mother  to  rebuke  her 
daughter  for  staring  at  herself  too  much  in  the  look- 
ing-glass, when  the  mother  has  her  own  mirrors  so 
arranged  as  to  repeat  her  form  from  all  sides.  The 
great  English  poet's  loose  moral  character  was  decided 
before  he  left  the  nursery,  and  his  schoolmaster  in  the 
school-room  overheard  this  conversation :  "  Byron, 
your  mother  is  a  fool,"  and  he  answered,  "  I  know  it." 
You  can  hear  through  all  the  heroic  life  of  Senator 
Sam  Houston  the  words  of  his  mother,  when  she  in 
the  war  of  1812  put  a  musket  in  his  hand  and  said: 
"  There,  my  son,  take  this  and  never  disgrace  it,  for 
remember  I  had  rather  all  my  sons  should  fill  one 
honorable  grave  than  that  one  of  them  should  turn 
his  back  on  an  enemy.  Go  and  remember,  too,  that 
while  the  door  of  my  cottage  is  open  to  all  brave  men, 
it  is  always  shut  against  cowards."  Agrippina,  the 
mother  of  Nero,  a  murderess,  you  are  not  surprised 
VOL.  XI.  351 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

that  her  son  was  a  murderer.  Give  that  child  an  over- 
dose of  catechism,  and  make  him  recite  verses  of  the 
Bible  as  a  punishment,  and  make  Sunday  a  bore,  and 
he  will  become  a  stout  antagonist  of  Christianity. 
Impress  him  with  the  kindness  and  the  geniality  and 
the  loveliness  of  religion  and  he  will  be  its  advocate 
and  exemplar  for  all  time  and  eternity. 

On  one  occasion,  while  I  was  traveling  in  the 
West,  right  before  our  express  train  on  the  Louisville 
and  Nashville  Railroad,  the  preceding  train  had  gone 
down  through  a  broken  bridge,  twelve  cars  falling  a 
hundred  feet  and  then  consumed,  I  saw  that  only  one 
span  of  the  bridge  was  down  and  all  the  other  spans 
were  standing.  Plan  a  good  bridge  of  morals  for 
your  sons  and  daughters,  but  have  the  first  span  of 
ten  years  defective  and  through  that  they  will  crash 
down,  though  all  the  rest  keep  standing.  O  man! 
O  woman !  if  you  have  preserved  your  integrity  and 
are  really  Christian,  you  have  first  of  all  to  thank  God, 
and  I  think  next  you  have  to  thank  your  mother.  The 
most  impressive  thing  at  the  inauguration  of  James  A. 
Garfield  as  President  of  the  United  States  was  that 
after  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  office  he  turned  round, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States,  kissed  his  old  mother.  If  I 
had  time  to  take  statistics  from  among  you,  and  I 
could  ask  what  proportion  of  you  who  are  Christians 
owe  your  salvation  under  God  to  maternal  fidelity,  I 
think  about  three-fourths  of  you  would  spring  to  your 
feet.  "Ha!  ha!"  said  the  soldiers  of  the  regiment 
to  Charlie,  one  of  their  comrades,  "  What  has  made 
the  change  in  you?  You  used  to  like  sin  as  well  as 
any  of  us."  Pulling  from  his  pocket  his  mother's 
letter  in  which,  after  telling  of  some  comforts  she  had 
sent  him,  she  concluded:     "We  are  all  praying  for 

352  VOL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother? 

you,  Charlie,  that  you  may  be  a  Christian,"  he  said, 
"  Boys  that's  the  sentence." 

The  trouble  with  Sisera's  mother  was,  sitting  at 
the  window  watching  for  news  of  her  son  from  the 
battle-field,  that  she  had  the  two  bad  qualities  of 
being  dissolute  and  being  too  fond  of  personal  adorn- 
ment. The  Bible  account  says :  "  Her  wise  ladies 
answered  her,  yea,  she  returned  answer  to  herself: 
'  Have  they  not  sped?  Have  they  not  divided  the 
prey;  to  every  man  a  damsel  or  two;  to  Sisera  a  prey 
of  divers  colors,  a  prey  of  divers  colors  of  needlework, 
of  divers  colors  of  needlework  on  both  sides?  '  "  She 
makes  no  anxious  utterance  about  the  wounded  in 
battle,  about  the  bloodshed,  about  the  dying,  about 
the  dead,  about  the  principles  involved  in  the  battle 
going  on;  a  battle  so  important  that  the  stars  and  the 
freshets  took  part,  and  the  clash  of  swords  was  an- 
swered by  the  thunder  of  the  skies.  What  she  thinks 
most  of  is  the  bright  colors  of  the  wardrobes  to  be 
captured,  and  the  needlework.  "  To  Sisera  a  prey  of 
divers  colors,  a  prey  of  divers  colors  of  needlework, 
of  divers  colors  of  needlework  on  both  sides." 

Now,  neither  Sisera's  mother  nor  anyone  else  can 
say  too  much  in  eulogy  of  the  needle.  It  has  made 
more  useful  conquests  than  the  sword.  Pointed  at 
one  end,  and  with  an  eye  at  the  other,  whether  of  bone 
or  ivory  as_  in  earliest  time,  or  of  bronze,  as  in  Pliny's 
time,  or  of  steel,  as  in  modern  time;  whether  labori- 
ously fashioned  as  formerly  by  one  hand  or  as  now, 
when  a  hundred  workmen  in  a  factory  are  employed 
to  make  the  different  parts  of  one  needle,  it  is  an 
instrument  divinely  ordered  for  the  comfort,  for  the 
life,  for  the  health,  for  the  adornment  of  the  human 
race.  The  eye  of  the  needle  hath  seen  more  domestic 
comfort  and  more  gladdened  poverty  and  more  Chris- 
voL.  XI.  353 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

tian  service  than  any  other  eye.  The  modern  sewing- 
machine  has  in  no  wise  aboHshed  the  needle,  but 
rather  enthroned  it.  Thank  God  for  the  needlework, 
from  the  time  when  the  Lord  Almighty  from  the 
heavens  ordered  in  regard  to  the  embroidered  door  of 
the  ancient  tabernacle :  "  Thou  shalt  make  a  hanging 
for  the  door  of  the  tent  of  blue  and  purple  and  scarlet 
and  fine-twined  linen,  wrought  with  needlework," 
down  to  the  womanly  hands  which  this  season  are 
presenting  for  benevolent  purposes  their  needlework. 
But  there  was  nothing  except  vanity  and  worldliness 
and  social  splash  in  what  Sisera's  mother  said  about 
the  needlework  she  expected  her  son  would  bring 
home  from  the  battle.  And  I  am  not  surprised  to  find 
that  Sisera  fought  on  the  wrong  side,  when  his  mother 
at  the  window  of  my  text,  in  that  awful  exigency  had 
her  chief  thought  on  drygoods  achievement  and  social 
display.  God  only  knows  how  many  homes  have 
made  shipwreck  on  the  wardrobe.  And  that  mother 
who  sits  at  the  window  watching  for  vainglorious 
triumph  of  millinery  and  fine  colors,  and  domestic 
pageantry,  will  after  a  while  hear  as  bad  news  from 
her  children  out  in  the  battle  of  life,  as  Sisera's  mother 
heard  from  the  struggle  at  Esdraelon. 

But  if  you  still  press  the  question  "  Where's 
mother?  "  I  will  tell  you  where  she  is  not,  though 
once  she  was  there.  Some  of  you  started  with  her 
likeness  in  your  face  and  her  principles  in  your  soul. 
But  you  have  cast  her  out.  That  was  an  awful  thing 
for  you  to  do,  but  you  have  done  it.  That  hard,  grind- 
ing, dissipated  look  you  never  got  from  her.  If  you 
had  seen  anyone  strike  her,  you  would  have  struck  him 
down,  without  much  care  whether  the  blow  was  just 
sufficient  or  fatal;  but,  my  boy,  you  have  struck  her 
down  I — struck  her  innocence  from  your  face  and 
struck  her  principles  from  your  soul.     You  struck  her 

354  VOL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother? 

down!  The  tentpin  that  Jael  drove  three  times  into 
the  skull  of  Sisera  was  not  so  cruel  as  the  stab  you 
have  made  more  than  three  times  through  your 
mother's  heart.  But  she  is  waiting  yet,  for  mothers 
are  slow  to  give  up  their  boys  —  waiting  at  some  win- 
dow, it  may  be  a  window  on  earth  or  at  some  window 
in  heaven.  All  others  may  cast  you  off.  Your  wife 
may  seek  divorce  and  have  no  more  patience  with  you. 
Your  father  may  disinherit  you  and  say,  "  Let  him 
never  again  darken  the  door  of  our  house."  But 
there  are  two  persons  who  do  not  give  you  up  —  God 
and  mother. 

How  many  disappointed  mothers  waiting  at  the 
window.  Perhaps  the  panes  of  the  window  are  not 
great  glass  plate,  bevel-edged  and  shaded  by  exquisite 
lambrequin,  but  the  window  is  made  of  small  panes, 
I  would  say  about  six  or  eight  of  them,  in  summer 
wreathed  with  trailing  vine,  and  in  v/inter  pictured  by 
the  Raphaels  of  the  frost,  a  real  country  window.  The 
mother  sits  there  knitting,  or  busy  with  her  needle  of 
homely  repairs,  when  she  looks  up,  and  sees  coming 
across  the  bridge  of  the  meadow  brook  a  stranger  who 
dismounts  in  front  of  the  window.  He  lifts  and  drops 
the  heavy  knocker  of  the  farmhouse  door.  "  Come 
in!"  is  the  response.  He  gives  his  name,  and  says, 
"  I  have  come  on  a  sad  errand."  "  There  is  nothing 
the  matter  with  my  son  in  the  city,  is  there?  "  she  asks. 
"  Yes !  "  he  says.  "  Your  son  got  into  an  unfortunate 
encounter  with  a  young  man  in  a  liquor  saloon  last 
night,  and  is  badly  hurt.  The  fact  is  he  cannot  get 
well.  I  hate  to  tell  you  all.  I  am  sorry  to  say  he  is 
dead."  "  Dead !"  she  cries  as  she  totters  back.  "Oh, 
my  son !  my  son !  my  son !  Would  God  I  had  died  for 
thee!  "  That  is  the  ending  of  all  her  cares  and 
anxieties  and  good  counsels  for  that  boy.  That  is 
her  pay  for  her  self-sacrifices  in  his  behalf.  That  is 
VOL.  XI.  355 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  bad  news  from  the  battle.  So  the  tidings  of  dere- 
lict or  Christian  sons  travel  to  the  windows  of  earth, 
or  the  windows  of  heaven  at  which  mothers  sit. 

"  But,"  says  some  one,  "  are  you  not  mistaken 
about  my  glorified  mother  hearing  of  my  evil  doings 
since  she  went  away?"  Says  some  one  else:  "Are 
you  not  mistaken  about  my  glorified  mother  hearing 
of  my  self-sacrifice  and  moral  bravery  and  struggle! 
to  do  right?"  No!  heaven  and  earth  are  in  constant 
communication.  There  are  trains  running  every  five 
minutes  —  trains  of  immortals  ascending  and  de- 
scending. Spirits  going  from  earth  to  heaven  to  live 
there.  Spirits  descending  from  heaven  to  earth  to 
minister  and  help.  They  hear  from  us  many  times 
every  day.  Do  they  hear  good  news  or  bad  news 
from  this  battle,  this  Sedan,  this  Thermopylae,  this 
Austerlitz,  in  which  every  one  of  us  is  fighting  on  the 
right  side  or  the  wrong  side? 

O  God!  whose  I  am,  and  whom  I  am  trying  to 
serve,  as  a  result  of  this  sermon,  roll  over  on  all 
mothers  a  new  sense  of  their  responsibility;  and  upon 
all  children,  whether  still  in  the  nursery  or  out  on  the 
tremendous  Esdrselon  of  mid-life  or  old  age,  the  fact 
that  their  victories  or  defeats  sound  clear  out,  clear  up 
to  the  windows  of  sympathetic  maternity.  Oh,  is  not 
this  the  minute  when  the  cloud  of  blessing  filled  with 
the  exhaled  tears  of  anxious  mothers  shall  burst  upon 
us  all  in  showers  of  mercy! 

There  is  one  thought  that  is  almost  too  tender  for 
utterance.  I  almost  fear  to  start  it,  lest  I  have  not 
enough  control  of  my  emotion  to  conclude  it.  As 
when  we  were  children  we  so  often  came  in  from  play 
or  from  a  hurt  or  from  some  childish  injustice  prac- 
ticed upon  us,  and  as  soon  as  the  door  was  opened 
we  cried:  "  Where's  mother?  "  and  she  said:  "  Here 
I  am,"  and  we  buried  our  weeping  faces  in  her  lap ;  so 

356  VOL.  XI. 


Where's  Mother? 

after  a  while,  when  we  get  through  with  the  pleasures 
and  hurts  of  this  life,  we  will,  by  the  pardoning  mercy 
of  Christ,  enter  the  heavenly  home,  and  among  the 
first  questions,  not  the  first  but  among  the  first,  will  be 
the  old  question  that  we  used  to  ask,  the  question  that 
is  being  asked  in  thousands  of  places  at  this  very  mo- 
ment—  the  question:  "Where's  mother?"  And  it 
will  not  take  long  for  us  to  find  her  or  for  her  to  find 
us,  for  she  will  have  been  watching  at  the  window  for 
our  coming,  and  with  the  other  children  of  our  house- 
hold of  earth  we  will  again  gather  round  her,  and  she 
will  say :  "  Well !  how  did  you  get  through  the  bat- 
tle of  life  ?  I  have  often  heard  from  others  about  you  ; 
but  now  I  want  to  hear  it  from  your  own  souls.  Tell 
me  all  about  it,  my  children!  "  And  then  we  will  tell 
her  of  all  our  earthly  experiences,  the  holidays,  the 
marriages,  the  birth-hours,  the  burials,  the  heart- 
breaks, the  losses,  the  gains,  the  victories,  the  defeats, 
and  she  will  say,  "  Never  mind,  it  is  all  over  now.  I 
see  each  one  of  you  has  a  crown  which  was  given  you 
at  the  gate  as  you  came  through.  Now  cast  it  at  the 
feet  of  the  Christ  who  saved  you  and  me  and  saved  us 
all.  Thank  God  we  are  never  to  part,  and  for  all  the 
ages  of  eternity  vou  will  never  again  have  to  ask, 
'  Where's  mother? '  " 


VOL.  XI.  3§f 


HOMESICKNESS 

Luke,  15:  i8:     "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 


/' 


HOMESICKNESS 

Luke,  15:  i8:    "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

There  is  nothing  Hke  hunger  to  take  the  energy  out 
of  a  man.  A  hungry  man  can  toil  neither  with  pen 
nor  hand  nor  foot  with  any  spirit.  There  has  been 
many  an  army  defeated  not  so  much  for  lack  of  am- 
munition as  for  lack  of  bread.  It  was  that  fact  that 
took  the  fire  out  of  this  young  man  of  the  text.  Storm 
and  exposure  will  wear  out  any  man's  life  in  time,  but 
hunger  makes  quick  work.  The  most  awful  cry  ever 
heard  on  earth  is  the  cry  for  bread. 

A  traveler  tells  us  that  in  Asia  Minor  there  are 
trees  which  bear  fruit  looking  very  much  like  the  long 
bean  of  our  time.  It  is  called  the  carob.  Once  in  a 
while  the  people  reduced  to  destitution  would  eat  these 
carobs,  but  generally  the  carobs,  the  beans  spoken  of 
here  in  the  text,  were  thrown  only  to  the  swine  and 
they  crunched  them  with  great  avidity.  But  this 
young  man  of  my  text  could  not  even  get  them  with- 
out stealing  them.  So  one  day  amid  the  swine  troughs 
he  begins  to  soliloquize.  He  says :  "  These  are  no 
clothes  for  a  rich  man's  son  to  wear;  this  is  no  kind  of 
business  for  a  Jew  to  be  engaged  in  —  feeding  swine; 
I  will  go  home,  I  will  go  home;  I  will  arise  and  go  to 
my  father." 

I  know  there  are  a  great  many  people  who  try  to 
throw  a  fascination,  a  romance,  a  halo  about  sin;  but 
notwithstanding  all  that  Lord  Byron  and  George  Sand 
have  said  in  regard  to  it,  it  is  a  mean,  low,  contempti- 
ble business,  and  putting  food  and  fodder  into  the 
troughs  of  a  herd  of  iniquities  that  root  and  wallow  in 
VOL.  XI.  361 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  soul  of  man  is  a  very  poor  business  for  men  and 
women  intended  to  be  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord 
Almighty.  And  when  this  young  man  resolved  to  go 
home,  it  was  a  very  wise  thing  for  him  to  do,  and  the 
only  question  is  whether  we  will  follow  him.  Satan 
promises  large  wages  if  we  will  serve  him;  but  he 
clothes  his  victims  with  rags,  and  he  pinches  them 
with  hunger,  and  when  they  start  out  to  do  better  he 
sets  after  them  all  the  bloodhounds  of  hell.  Satan 
comes  to  us  to-day  and  he  promises  all  luxuries,  all 
emoluments  if  we  will  only  serve  him.  Liar,  down 
with  thee  to  the  pit!  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death." 
The  young  man  of  the  text  was  wise  when  he  uttered 
the  resolution:    "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

In  the  time  of  Mary,  called  bloody  because  of  her 
cruelties,  a  persecutor  came  to  a  Christian  woman  who 
had  hidden  in  her  house  for  the  Lord's  sake  one  of 
Christ's  servants,  and  the  persecutor  said:  "Where 
is  that  heretic?"  The  Christian  woman  said:  "You 
open  that  trunk  and  you  will  see  the  heretic."  The 
persecutor  opened  the  trunk,  and  on  the  top  of  the 
linen  of  the  trunk  he  saw  a  glass.  He  said:  "  There 
is  no  heretic  here."  "Ah!"  she  said,  "you  look  in 
the  glass  and  you  will  see  the  heretic ! "  She  was  right, 
for  a  persecutor  not  having  Christ's  spirit  is  the  worst 
kind  of  a  heretic.  As  I  take  up  the  mirror  of  God's 
word  to-day,  I  would  that  instead  of  seeing  the  prodi- 
gal of  the  text,  we  might  see  ourselves  —  our  want, 
our  wandering,  our  sin,  our  lost  condition,  so  that  we 
might  be  as  wise  as  this  young  man  was  and  say: 
"  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

The  resolution  of  this  text  was  formed  in  disgust 
at  his  present  circumstances.  If  this  young  man  had 
been  set  by  his  employers  to  culturing  flowers,  or 
training  vines  over  an  arbor,  or  keeping  account  of  the 
pork  market,  or  overseeing  other  laborers,  he  would 

Z(>2  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

not  have  thought  of  going  home.  If  he  had  had  his 
pockets  full  of  money,  if  he  had  been  able  to  say,  "  I 
have  a  thousand  dollars  now  of  my  own;  what's  the 
use  of  my  going  back  to  my  father's  house?  Do  you 
think  I  am  going  back  to  apologize  to  the  old  man? 
Why  he  would  put  me  on  the  limits;  he  would  not 
have  going  on  around  the  old  place  such  conduct  as  I 
have  been  engaged  in.  I  will  not  go  home ;  there  is  no 
reason  why  I  should  go  home.  I  have  plenty  of 
money,  plenty  of  pleasant  surroundings,  why  should 
I  go  home  ?  "  Ah !  it  was  his  pauperism,  it  was  his 
beggary.    He  had  to  go  home. 

Some  man  comes  and  says  to  me:  "  Why  do  you 
talk  about  the  ruined  state  of  the  human  soul?  why 
do  you  not  speak  about  the  progress  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  talk  of  something  more  exhilarating?" 
It  is  for  this  reason;  a  man  never  wants  the  Gospel 
until  he  realizes  he  is  in  a  famine-struck  state.  Sup- 
pose I  should  come  to  you  in  your  home  and  you  are 
now  in  good,  sound,  robust  health,  and  I  should  begin 
to  talk  about  medicines,  and  about  how  much  better 
this  medicine  is  than  that,  and  some  other  medicine 
than  some  other  medicine,  and  talk  about  this  physi- 
cian and  that  physician.  After  a  while  you  would  get 
tired,  and  you  would  say:  "  I  do  not  want  to  hear 
about  medicines.  Why  do  you  talk  to  me  about  phy- 
sicians? I  never  have  a  doctor."  Suppose  I  come 
into  your  house  and  I  find  you  severely  sick,  and  I 
know  the  medicines  that  will  cure  you,  and  I  know  the 
physician  who  is  skilful  enough  to  deal  with  your  case. 
You  say :  "  Bring  on  that  medicine,  bring  on  that 
physician!  I  am  terribly  sick  and  I  want  help."  If 
I  come  to  you  and  you  feel  you  are  all  right  in  body 
and  all  right  in  mind,  and  all  right  in  soul,  you  have 
need  of  nothing;  but  suppose  I  have  persuaded  you 
that  the  leprosy  of  sin  is  upon  you,  the  worst  of  all 
VOL.  XI.  363 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talraage 

sickness,  oh,  then  you  say :  "  Bring  me  that  divine  me- 
dicament ;  bring  me  Jesus  Christ,  the  great  Physician." 

But  says  some  one,  "  How  do  you  prove  that  we 
are  in  a  ruined  condition  by  sin?  "  Well,  I  can  prove 
it  in  two  ways,  and  you  may  have  your  choice.  I  can 
prove  it  either  by  the  statements  of  men,  or  by  the 
statement  ol  God.  Which  shall  it  be?  You  will  say, 
"  Let  us  have  the  statement  of  God.  Well,  he  will  say 
in  one  place  :  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things 
and  desperately  wicked."  He  says  in  another  place: 
"  What  is  man  that  he  should  be  clean?  and  he  which 
is  born  of  a  woman,  that  he  should  be  righteous?  "  He 
says  in  another  place:  "  There  is  none  that  doeth  good, 
no,  not  one."  He  says  in  another  place:  "  As  by  one 
man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin;  and 
so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

"  Well,"  you  say,  "  I  am  willing  to  acknowledge 
that,  but  why  should  I  take  the  particular  rescue  that 
you  propose?  "  This  is  the  reason:  "  Except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
"There  is  one  name  given  under  heaven  among  men 
whereby  they  may  be  saved."  Then  there  are  a  thou- 
sand voices  here  ready  to  say:  "Well,  I  am  ready 
to  accept  this  help  of  the  Gospel;  I  would  like  to  have 
this  divine  cure;  how  shall  I  go  to  work?"  Let  me 
say  that  a  mere  whim,  an  undefined  longing  amounts 
to  nothing.  You  must  have  a  stout,  all-conquering 
resolution  like  this  young  man  of  the  text  when  he 
said :   "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

Some  man  says :  "  How  do  I  know  my  father 
wants  me?  How  do  I  know,  if  I  go  back,  I  would  be 
received?  "  Another  says:  "  You  do  not  know  where 
I  have  been;  you  do  not  know  how  far  I  have  wan- 
dered ;  you  would  not  talk  that  way  to  me  if  you  knew 
all  the  iniquities  I  have  committed."     What  is  that 

364  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

flutter  among  the  angels  of  God?    It  is  news!    Christ 
has  found  the  lost. 

Nor  angels  can  their  joy  contain, 

But  kindle  with  new  fire; 
The  sinner  lost,  is  found,  they  sing, 

And  strike  the  sounding  lyre. 

When  Napoleon  talked  of  going  to  Italy,  they  said : 
"You  cannot  get  there;  if  you  knew  what  the  Alps 
were  you  would  not  talk  about  it  or  think  of  it;  you 
cannot  get  your  ammunition  wagons  over  the  Alps." 
Then  Napoleon  rose  in  his  stirrups,  and  waving  his 
hand  toward  the  mountains  he  said :  "  There  shall  be 
no  Alps."  That  wonderful  pass  was  laid  out  which 
has  been  the  wonderment  of  all  engineers.  And  you 
tell  me  there  are  such  mountains  of  sin  between  your 
soul  and  God,  there  is  no  mercy.  Then  I  see  Christ 
waving  his  hand  toward  the  mountains,  and  I  hear 
him  say,  "  I  will  come  over  the  mountains  of  thy  sin 
and  the  hills  of  thine  iniquity."  There  shall  be  no 
Pyrenees,  there  shall  be  no  Alps. 

Again,  I  notice  that  this  resolution  of  the  young 
man  of  the  text  was  founded  in  sorrow  at  his  misbe- 
havior. It  was  not  mere  physical  plight.  It  was  grief 
that  he  had  so  maltreated  his  father.  It  is  a  sad  thing 
after  a  father  has  done  everything  for  a  child  to  have 
that  child  ungrateful. 

How  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is 
To  have  a  thankless  child. 

That  is  Shakespeare.  "  A  foolish  son  is  the  heavi- 
ness of  his  mother."  That  is  the  Bible.  Well,  my 
friends,  have  not  some  of  us  been  cruel  prodigals? 
Have  we  not  maltreated  our  Father?  And  such  a 
VOL.  XI.  36s 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

Father?  So  loving,  so  kind.  If  he  had  been  a 
stranger,  if  he  had  forsaken  us,  if  he  had  flagellated 
us,  if  he  had  pounded  us  and  turned  us  out  of  doors 
on  the  commons,  it  would  not  have  been  so  wonderful 
—  our  treatment  of  him ;  but  he  is  a  Father  so  loving, 
so  kind,  and  yet  how  many  of  us  for  our  wanderings 
have  never  apologized.  We  apologize  for  wrongs  done 
to  our  fellows,  but  some  of  us  perhaps  have  commit- 
ted ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  wrongs  against 
God  and  never  apologized. 

I  remark  still  further,  that  this  resolution  of  the 
text  was  founded  in  a  feeling  of  homesickness.  I  do 
not  know  how  long  this  young  man,  how  many 
months,  how  many  years,  he  had  been  away  from  his 
father's  house;  but  there  is  something  about  the  read- 
ing of  my  text  that  makes  me  think  he  was  homesick. 
Some  of  you  know  what  that  feeling  is.  Soldiers 
sometimes  get  nostalgia  or  homesickness,  and  army 
doctors  say  that  when  a  man  gets  it  they  have  great 
difficulty  in  curing  it,  and  there  is  no  sure  cure  except 
a  furlough.  Far  away  from  home  sometimes,  sur- 
rounded by  everything  bright  and  pleasant  —  plenty 
of  friends  —  you  have  said:  "I  would  give  the  world 
to  be  home  to-night."  Well,  this  young  man  was 
homesick  for  his  father's  house.  I  have  no  doubt  when 
he  thought  of  his  father's  house  he  said :  "  Now,  per- 
haps, father  may  not  be  living." 

We  read  nothing  in  this  story  —  this  parable 
founded  on  everyday  life  —  we  read  nothing  about  the 
mother.  It  says  nothing  about  going  home  to  her.  I 
think  she  was  dead.  I  think  she  had  died  of  a  broken 
heart  at  his  wanderings,  or  perhaps  he  had  gone  into 
dissipation  from  the  fact  he  could  not  remember  a 
loving  and  sympathetic  mother.  A  man  never  gets 
over  having  lost  his  mother.  Nothing  said  about  her 
here.    But  he  is  homesick  for  his  father's  house.    He 

366  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

thought  he  would  just  like  to  go  and  walk  around  the 
old  place.  He  thought  he  would  just  like  to  go  and 
see  if  things  were  as  they  used  to  be.  Many  a  man 
after  having  been  oflF  a  long  while,  has  gone  home  and 
knocked  at  the  door,  and  a  stranger  has  come.  It  is 
the  old  homestead,  but  a  stranger  comes  to  the  door. 
He  finds  out  father  is  gone,  and  mother  is  gone,  and 
brothers  and  sisters  all  gone.  I  think  this  young  man 
of  the  text  said  to  himself :  "  Perhaps  father  may  be 
dead."  Still,  he  starts  to  find  out.  He  is  homesick. 
Are  there  any  here  homesick  for  God,  homesick  for 
heaven? 

A  sailor,  after  having  been  long  on  the  sea,  re- 
turned to  his  father's  house,  and  his  mother  tried  to 
persuade  him  not  to  go  away  again.  She  said :  "  Now 
you  had  better  stay  at  home ;  do  not  go  away ;  we  do 
not  want  you  to  go ;  you  will  have  it  a  great  deal 
better  here."  But  it  made  him  angry.  The  night 
before  he  went  away  again  to  sea,  he  heard  his  mother 
praying  in  the  next  room,  and  that  made  him  more 
angry.  He  went  far  out  on  the  sea  and  a  storm  came 
up,  and  he  was  ordered  to  very  perilous  duty,  and  he 
ran  up  the  ratlines,  and  amid  the  shrouds  of  the  ship 
he  heard  the  voice  that  he  had  heard  in  the  next  room. 
He  tried  to  whistle  it  ofT,  he  tried  to  rally  his  courage; 
but  he  could  not  silence  that  voice  he  had  heard  in  the 
next  room,  and  there  in  the  storm  and  the  darkness 
he  said:  "  O!  Lord,  what  a  wretch  I  have  been,  what 
a  wretch  I  am.  Help  me  just  now.  Lord  God."  In 
this  assemblage  there  may  be  some  who  may  have  the 
memory  of  a  father's  petition,  or  a  mother's  prayer 
pressing  mightily  upon  the  soul,  and  who  this  hour 
may  make  the  same  resolution  I  find  in  my  text,  say- 
ing:   "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

A  lad  at  Liverpool  went  out  to  bathe,  went  out 
into  the  sea,  went  out  too  far,  got  beyond  his  depth  and 

VOL.  XI.  z(>7 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

he  floated  far  away.  A  ship  bound  for  Dublin  came 
along  and  took  him  on  board.  Sailors  are  generally 
very  generous  fellows,  and  one  gave  him  a  cap  and 
another  gave  him  a  jacket,  and  another  gave  him 
shoes.  A  gentleman  passing  along  on  the  beach  at 
Liverpool  found  the  lad's  clothes  and  took  them  home, 
and  the  father  was  heartbroken,  the  mother  was  heart- 
broken, at  the  loss  of  their  child.  They  had  heard 
nothing  from  him  day  after  day,  and  they  ordered  the 
usual  mourning  for  the  sad  event.  But  the  lad  took 
ship  from  Dublin  and  arrived  in  Liverpool  the  very 
day  the  garments  arrived.  He  knocked  at  the  door 
and  the  father  was  overjoyed,  and  the  mother  was  over- 
joyed at  the  return  of  their  lost  son.  O!  my  friends, 
have  you  waded  out  too  deep?  Have  you  waded  down 
into  sin?  Have  you  waded  from  the  shore?  Will  you 
come  back?  When  you  come  back  will  you  come  in 
the  rags  of  your  sin,  or  will  you  come  robed  in  the 
Saviour's  righteousness?  I  believe  the  latter.  Go 
home  to  your  God  to-day.  He  is  waiting  for  you. 
Go  home! 

But  I  remark  the  characteristic  of  this  young  man's 
resolution  was,  it  was  immediately  put  into  execution. 
The  context  says,  "  He  arose  and  came  to  his  father." 
The  trouble  in  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  times  out 
of  a  thousand  is  that  our  resolutions  amount  to  nothing 
because  we  make  them  for  some  distant  time.  If  I 
resolve  to  become  a  Christian  next  year,  that  amounts 
to  nothing  at  all.  If  I  resolve  to  become  a  Christian 
to-morrow,  that  amounts  to  nothing  at  all.  If  I  re- 
solve that  at  the  service  to-night  I  will  become  a 
Christian,  that  amounts  to  nothing  at  all.  If  I  resolve 
after  I  go  home  to-day  to  yield  my  heart  to  God,  that 
amounts  to  nothing  at  all.  The  only  kind  of  resolu- 
tion that  amounts  to  anything  is  the  resolution  that  is 
immediately  put  into  execution. 

368  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

There  is  a  man  who  had  the  typhoid  fever.  He 
said :  "  Oh !  if  I  could  get  over  this  terrible  distress ;  if 
this  fever  should  depart,  if  I  could  be  restored  to 
health,  I  would  all  the  rest  of  my  life  serve  God."  The 
fever  departed.  He  got  well  enough  to  walk  around 
the  block.  He  got  well  enough  to  go  to  New  York 
and  attend  to  business.  He  is  well  to-day  —  as  well 
as  he  ever  was.  Where  is  the  broken  vow?  There  is 
a  man  who  said  long  ago:  "  If  I  could  live  to  the 
year  1899,  by  that  time  I  will  have  my  business  mat- 
ters all  arranged,  and  I  will  have  time  to  attend  to 
religion,  and  I  will  be  a  good  thorough,  consecrated 
Christian.  The  year  1899  has  come.  January^  Febru- 
ary, March,  April,  May,  June,  July,  August,  Septem- 
ber —  three-fourths  of  the  year  gone.  Where  is  your 
broken  vow  ?  "  Oh !  "  says  some  man,  "  I'll  attend  to 
that  when  I  can  get  my  character  fixed  up,  when  I 
can  get  over  my  evil  habits ;  I  am  now  given  to  strong 
drink,"  or,  says  the  man,  "  I  am  given  to  unclean- 
ness,"  or,  says  the  man,  "  I  am  given  to  dishonesty. 
When  I  get  over  my  present  habits,  then  I  will  be  a 
thorough  Christian."  My  brother,  you  will  get  worse 
and  worse  until  Christ  takes  you  in  hand.  "  Not  the 
righteous,  sinners  Jesus  came  to  call."  "I  agree  with 
you  on  all  that,"  you  say,  "  but  I  must  put  it  ofif  a  little 
longer."  Do  you  know  there  were  many  who  came 
just  as  near  as  you  are  to  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
never  entered  it?  I  was  this  summer  at  East  Hamp- 
ton and  I  went  into  the  cemetery  to  look  around, and  in 
that  cemetery  there  are  twelve  graves  side  by  side  — 
the  graves  of  sailors.  This  crew,  some  years  ago,  in  a 
ship  went  into  the  breakers  at  Amaganset,  about  three 
miles  away.  My  brother,  then  preaching  at  East 
Hampton,  had  been  at  the  burial.  These  men  of  the 
crew  came  very  near  being  saved.  The  people  from 
Amaganset  saw  the  vessel,  and  they  shot  rockets,  and 
VOL.  XI.  369 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

they  sent  ropes  from  the  shore,  and  these  poor  fellows 
got  into  the  boat,  and  they  pulled  mightily  for  the 
shore,  but  just  before  they  got  to  the  shore,  the  rope 
snapped  and  the  boat  capsized  and  they  were  lost, 
their  bodies  afterward  washed  up  on  the  beach.  Oh ! 
what  a  solemn  day  it  was  —  I  have  been  told  of  it  by 
my  brother  —  when  these  twelve  men  lay  at  the  foot 
of  the  pulpit  and  he  read  over  them  the  funeral  service. 
They  came  very  near  shore  —  within  shouting  distance 
of  the  shore,  yet  did  not  arrive  on  solid  land.  There 
are  some  men  who  come  almost  to  the  shore  of  God's 
mercy,  but  not  quite,  not  quite.  To  be  only  almost 
saved  is  to  be  lost. 

I  will  tell  you  of  two  prodigals,  the  one  that  got 
back  and  the  other  that  did  not  get  back.  In  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  there  is  a  very  prosperous  and  beauti- 
ful home  in  many  respects.  A  young  man  wandered 
off  from  that  home.  He  wandered  very  far  into  sin. 
They  heard  of  him  often,  but  he  was  always  on  the 
wrong  track.  He  would  not  go  home.  At  the  door 
of  that  beautiful  home  one  night  there  was  a  great  out- 
cry. The  young  man  of  the  house  ran  down  and 
opened  the  door  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  It  was 
midnight.  The  rest  of  the  family  were  asleep.  There 
were  the  wife  and  the  children  of  this  prodigal  young 
man.  The  fact  was  he  had  come  home  and  driven 
them  out.  He  said:  "  Out  of  this  house.  Away  with 
these  children ;  I  will  dash  their  brains  out.  Out  into 
the  storm!  '*  The  mother  gathered  them  up  and  fled. 
The  next  morning,  the  brother,  the  young  man  who 
had  stayed  at  home,  went  out  to  find  this  prodigal 
brother  and  son,  and  he  came  where  he  was,  and  saw 
the  young  man  wandering  up  and  down  in  front  of  the 
place  where  he  had  been  staying,  and  the  young  man 
who  had  kept  his  integrity,  said  to  the  older  brother: 
"Here,  what  does  all  this  mean?  what  is  the  matter 

370  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

with  you?  Why  do  you  act  in  this  way?  "  The  prodi- 
gal looked  at  him  and  said:  "Who  am  I?  Who  do 
you  take  me  to  be  ? "  He  said :  "  You  are  my 
brother."  "  No,  I  am  not.  I  am  a  brute.  Have  you 
seen  anything  of  my  wife  and  children?  are  they  dead? 
I  drove  them  out  last  night  in  the  storm.  I  am  a 
brute.  JohU;  do  you  think  there  is  any  help  for  me? 
Do  you  think  I  will  ever  get  over  this  life  of  dissipa- 
tion? There  is  just  one  thing  that  will  stop  this,"  and 
the  prodigal  ran  his  finger  across  his  throat  and  added : 
"  That  will  stop  it,  and  I'll  stop  it  before  night.  Oh ! 
my  brain;  I  can  stand  it  no  longer."  That  prodigal 
never  got  home. 

But  I  will  tell  you  of  a  prodigal  who  did  get  home. 
In  England  two  young  men  started  from  their  father's 
house  and  went  down  to  Portsmouth.  The  father 
could  not  pursue  his  children;  for  some  reason  he 
could  not  leave  home,  and  so  he  wrote  a  letter  down 
to  Mr.  Griflfin,  saying:  "  Mr.  Griffin,  T  wish  you  would 
go  and  see  my  two  sons.  They  have  arrived  in  Ports- 
mouth, and  they  are  going  to  take  ship  and  going 
away  from  home.  I  wish  you  would  persuade  them 
back."  Mr.  Griffin  went  and  he  tried  to  persuade  them 
back.  He  persuaded  one  to  go.  He  went  with  very 
easy  persuasion  because  he  was  very  homesick  al- 
ready. The  other  young  man  said,  "  I  will  not  go. 
I  have  had  enough  of  home.  I'll  never  go  home." 
"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Griffin,  "  then  if  you  won't  go  home, 
I'll  get  you  a  respectable  position  on  a  respectable 
ship."  "  No,  you  won't,"  said  the  prodigal;  "no  you 
won't.  I  am  going  as  a  common  sailor;  that  will 
plague  my  father  most,  and  what  will  do  most  to  tan- 
talize and  worry  him  will  please  me  best."  Years 
passed  on  and  Mr.  Griffin  was  seated  in  his  study  one 
day  when  a  message  came  to  him  saying  there  was  a 
young  man  in  irons  on  a  ship  at  the  dock  —  a  young 
VOL.  XI.  371 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

man  condemned  to  death  —  who  wished  to  see  this 
clergyman.  Mr.  Griffin  went  down  to  the  dock  and 
went  on  shipboard.  The  young  man  said  to  him: 
"  You  don't  know  me,  do  you?  "  "  No,"  he  said,  "  I 
don't  know  you."  "  Why,  don't  you  remember  that 
young  man  you  tried  to  persuade  to  go  home  and  he 
wouldn't  go  ?  "  Oh !  yes,"  said  Mr.  Griffin,  "  are  you 
that  man?  "  "  Yes,  I  am  that  man,"  said  the  other. 
"  I  would  like  to  have  you  pray  for  me.  I  have  com- 
mitted murder  and  I  must  die ;  but  I  don't  want  to  go 
out  of  this  world  until  some  one  prays  for  me.  You 
are  my  father's  friend  and  I  would  like  to  have  you 
pray  for  me."  Mr.  Griffin  went  from  judicial  authority 
to  judicial  authority  to  get  that  young  man's  pardon. 
He  slept  not  night  nor  day.  He  went  from  influential 
person  to  influential  person  until,  in  some  way,  he  got 
that  young  man's  pardon.  He  came  down  on  the  dock, 
and  as  he  arrived  on  the  dock  with  the  pardon  the 
father  came.  He  had  heard  that  his  son,  under  an 
assumed  name,  had  been  committing  crime  and  was 
going  to  be  put  to  death.  So  Mr.  Griffin  and  the  father 
W'  nt  on  the  ship's  deck,  and  at  the  very  moment  Mr. 
Griffin  offered  the  pardon  to  the  young  man,  the  old 
father  threw  his  arms  around  the  son's  neck  and  the 
son  said :  "  Father,  I  have  done  very  wrong  and  I  am 
very  sorry.  I  wish  I  had  never  broken  your  heart.  I 
am  very  sorry."  "  Oh !  "  said  the  father,  "  don't  let  us 
dwell  on  it.  It  don't  make  any  difference  now.  It  is 
all  over.  I  forgive  you,  my  son,"  and  he  kissed  him 
and  kissed  him. 

To-day  I  offer  you  the  pardon  of  the  Gospel  —  full 
pardon,  free  pardon.  I  do  not  care  what  your  crime 
'  has  been.  Though  you  say  you  have  committed  a 
crime  against  God,  against  your  own  soul,  against 
your  fellow-man,  against  your  family,  against  the  day 
of  judgment,  against  the  cross  of  Christ  —  whatever 

372  VOL.  XI. 


Homesickness 

your  crime  has  been,  here  is  pardon,  full  pardon,  and 
the  very  moment  you  take  that  pardon  your  heavenly 
Father  throws  his  arms  around  about  you  and  says: 
"  My  son,  I  forgive  you.  It  is  all  right.  You  are 
as  much  in  my  favor  now  as  if  you  had  never  sinned." 
And  so  there  is  joy  on  earth  and  joy  in  heaven.  Who 
will  take  the  father's  embrace? 


VOL.  XI.  373 


CONTENTMENT 

Heb.,  13:  5.    "  Be  content  with  such  things  as  ye  have.' 


CONTENTMENT 

Heb.,  13:  5:    "Be  content  with  such  things  as  ye  have." 

If  I  should  ask  some  one,  "  Where  is  Brooklyn  to- 
day ?  "  he  would  say,  "  At  Brighton  Beach,  or  East 
Hampton,  or  Shelter  Island."  "  Where  is  New 
York,  to-day?"  "At  Long  Branch."  "Where  is 
Philadelphia?  "  "  Cape  May."  "  Where  is  Boston?  " 
"At  Martha's  Vineyard."  "Where  is  Virginia?" 
"  At  the  Sulphur  Springs."  "  Where  the  great  multi- 
tude from  all  parts  of  the  land  ?  "  "  At  Saratoga." 
But  the  largest  multitude  are  at  home,  detained  by 
business  or  circumstances.  Among  them  all  news- 
paper men,  the  hardest  worked  and  the  least  com- 
pensated ;  city  railroad  employees,  and  ferry  masters, 
and  the  police,  and  the  tens  of  thousands  of  clerks 
and  merchants  waiting  for  their  turn  of  absence,  and 
households  with  an  invalid  who  cannot  be  moved, 
and  others  hindered  by  stringent  circumstances,  and 
the  great  multitude  of  well-to-do  people  who  stay  at 
home  because  they  like  home  better  than  any  other 
place,  refusing  to  obey  the  dictum  that  they  must 
follow  the  fashion  and  simply  go  because  it  is  the 
fashion  to  go  away.  When  the  express  wagon,  with 
its  mountain  of  trunks,  directed  to  the  Catskills  or 
Niagara,  goes  through  the  streets,  we  stand  at  our 
window  envious  and  impatient,  and  wonder  why  we 
cannot  go  as  well  as  others.  Fools  that  we  are,  as 
though  one  could  not  be  as  happy  at  home  as  any- 
where else!  Our  grandfathers  and  grandmothers 
had  as  good  a  time  as  we  have,  long  before  the  first 
VOL.  XI.  377 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

spring  was  bored  at  Saratoga,  or  the  first  deer  shot 
in  the  Adirondacks.  They  made  their  wedding-tour 
to  the  next  farmhouse,  or,  living  in  New  York,  they 
celebrated  the  event  by  an  extra  walk  on  the  Battery. 

Now,  the  genuine  American  is  not  happy  until  he 
is  going  somewhere,  and  the  passion  is  so  great  that 
there  are  Christian  people,  with  their  families,  de- 
tained in  the  city,  who  come  not  to  the  house  of 
God,  trying  to  give  people  the  idea  that  they  are  out 
of  town,  leaving  the  door-plate  unscoured  for  the 
same  reason,  and  for  two  months  keeping  the  front 
shutters  closed  while  they  sit  in  the  back  part  of  the 
house,  the  thermometer  at  ninety !  If  it  is  best  for  us 
to  go,  let  us  go  and  be  happy.  If  it  is  best  for  us  to 
stay  at  home,  let  us  stay  at  home  and  be  happy.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  good  common  sense  in  this  scrip- 
tural advice  to  the  Hebrews :  "  Be  content  with  such 
things  as  ye  have."  To  be  content  is  to  be  in  good 
humor  with  our  circumstances,  not  picking  a  quarrel 
with  our  obscurity,  or  our  poverty,  or  our  social 
position.  There  are  four  or  five  grand  reasons  why 
we  should  be  content  with  such  things  as  we  have. 

The  first  reason  that  I  mention  as  leading  to  this 
spirit,  advised  in  the  text,  is  the  consideration  that 
the  poorest  of  us  have  all  that  is  indispensable  in  life. 
We  make  great  ado  about  our  hardships,  but  how 
little  we  talk  of  our  blessings.  Health  of  body,  which 
is  given  in  largest  quantity  to  those  who  have  never 
been  petted  and  fondled,  and  spoiled  by  fortune,  we 
take  as  a  matter  of  course.  Rather  have  this  luxury, 
and  have  it  alone,  than,  without  it,  look  out  of  a 
palace  window  upon  parks  of  deer  feeding  between 
fountains  and  statuary.  These  people  sleep  sounder 
on  a  straw  mattress  than  fashionable  invalids  on  a 
couch  of  ivory  and  eagles'  down.  The  dinner  of 
herbs  tastes  better  to  the  appetite  sharpened  on  a 

378  VOL.  XI. 


Contentment 

woodman's  axe  or  a  reaper's  scythe,  than  wealthy  in- 
digestion experiences  seated  at  a  table  covered  with 
partridge  and  venison  and  pineapple.  The  grandest 
luxury  God  ever  gave  a  man  is  health.  He  who 
trades  that  off  for  all  the  palaces  of  the  earth  is  in- 
finitely cheated.  We  look  back  at  the  glory  of  the 
last  Napoleon,  but  who  would  have  taken  his  Ver- 
sailles, and  his  Tuilleries,  if  with  them  we  had  to  take 
his  gout? 

"  Oh,"  says  some  one,  "  it  is  not  the  grosser  pleas- 
ures I  covet,  but  it  is  the  gratification  of  an  artistic 
and  intellectual  taste."  Why,  you  have  the  original 
from  which  these  pictures  are  copied.  What  is  a 
sunset  on  a  wall  compared  with  a  sunset  hung  in 
loops  of  fire  on  the  heavens?  What  is  a  cascade, 
silent  on  a  canvas,  compared  to  a  cascade  that  makes 
the  mountain  ^remble,  its  spray  ascending  like  the 
departed  spirit  of  the  water  slain  on  the  rocks?  Oh, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  hollow  affectation  about  a 
fondness  for  pictures  on  the  part  of  those  who  never 
appreciate  the  original  from  which  the  pictures  are 
taken.  As  though  a  parent  should  have  no  regard 
for  his  child,  but  go  into  ecstacies  over  its  photo- 
graph. Bless  the  Lord  to-day,  O  man!  O  woman! 
that  though  you  may  be  shut  out  from  the  works 
of  a  Church,  a  Bierstadt,  a  Rubens,  and  a  Raphael, 
you  still  have  free  access  to  a  gallery  grander  than 
the  Louvre,  or  the  Luxembourg,  or  the  Vatican  — 
the  royal  gallery  of  the  noonday  heavens,  the  King's 
gallery  of  the  midnight  sky. 

Another  consideration  leading  us  to  a  spirit  of 
contentment,  is  the  fact  that  our  happiness  is  not 
dependent  upon  outward  circumstances.  You  see 
people  happy  and  miserable  amid  all  circumstances. 
In  a  family  where  the  last  loaf  is  on  the  table,  and 
the  last  stick  of  wood  on  the  fire,  you  sometimes  find 
VOL.  XI.  379 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

a  cheerful  confidence  in  God;  while  in  a  very  fine 
place  you  will  hear  discord  sounding  her  war-whoop, 
and  see  hospitality  freezing  to  death  in  a  cheerless 
parlor. 

I  stopped  one  day  on  Broadway,  New  York,  at  the 
head  of  Wall  Street,  at  the  foot  of  Trinity  Church,  to 
see  who  seemed  the  happiest  people  passing.  I 
judged,  from  their  looks,  the  happiest  people  were 
not  those  who  went  down  into  Wall  Street,  for  they 
had  on  their  brow  the  anxiety  of  the  dollars  they  ex- 
pected to  make;  nor  the  people  who  came  out  of 
Wall  Street,  for  they  had  on  their  brow  the  anxiety 
of  the  dollars  they  had  lost;  nor  the  people  who 
swept  by  in  splendid  equipage,  for  they  met  a  car- 
riage that  was  finer  than  theirs.  The  happiest  per- 
son in  all  that  crowd,  judging  from  the  countenance, 
was  the  woman  who  sat  at  the  apple-stand,  knitting. 
I  beUeve  real  happiness  oftener  looks  out  of  the  win- 
dow of  an  humble  home,  than  through  the  opera- 
glass  of  the  gilded  box  of  a  theatre. 

I  find  Nero  growling  on  a  throne.  I  find  Paul 
singing  in  a  dungeon.  I  find  King  Ahab  going  to 
bed  at  noon,  through  melancholy,  while  near  by  is 
Naboth  contented  in  the  possession  of  a  vineyard. 
Haman,  prime  minister  of  Persia,  frets  himself  almost 
to  death  because  a  poor  Jew  will  not  tip  his  hat ;  and 
Ahithophel,  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  of  Bible 
times,  through  fear  of  dying,  hangs  himself.  The 
wealthiest  man,  forty  years  ago,  in  New  York,  when 
congratulated  over  his  large  estate,  replied,  "  Ah,  you 
don't  know  how  much  trouble  I  have  in  taking  care 
of  it !  "  Byron  declared,  in  his  last  hours,  that  he 
had  never  seen  more  than  twelve  happy  days  in  all 
his  Hfe.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  had  seen  twelve 
minutes  of  thorough  satisfaction.  Napoleon  I  said, 
"  I  turn  with  disgust  from  the  cowardice  and  selfish- 

380  VOL.  XI. 


Contentment 

ness  of  man,  I  hold  life  a  horror;  death  is  repose. 
What  I  have  suffered  the  last  twenty  days  is  beyond 
human  comprehension."  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  show  how  one  may  be  happy  amid  the  most  disad- 
vantageous circumstances,  just  after  the  Ocean  Mon- 
arch had  been  wrecked  in  the  English  Channel,  a 
steamer  was  cruising  along  in  the  darkness,  when  the 
captain  heard  a  song,  a  sweet  song,  coming  over  the 
water,  and  he  bore  down  toward  that  voice,  and 
found  it  was  a  Christian  woman  on  a  plank  of  the 
wrecked  steamer,  singing  to  the  tune  of  Martyn: 

Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 

Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  billows  near  me  roll. 

While  the  tempest  still  is  high. 

The  heart  right  toward  God  and  man,  we  are  happy. 
The  heart  wrong  toward  God  and  man,  we  are  un- 
happy. 

Another  reason  why  we  should  come  to  this  spirit 
inculcated  in  the  text,  is  the  fact  that  all  the  dif- 
ferences of  earthly  condition  are  transitory.  The 
houses  you  build,  the  land  you  cultivate,  the  places  in 
which  you  barter,  are  soon  to  go  into  other  hands. 
However  hard  you  may  have  it  now,  if  you  are  a 
Christian  the  scene  will  soon  end.  Pain,  trial,  perse- 
cution, never  knock  at  the  door  of  the  grave.  A 
coffin  made  out  of  pine  boards  is  just  as  good  a  rest- 
ing-place as  one  made  out  of  silver-mounted  ma- 
hogany or  rosewood.  Go  down  among  the  resting- 
places  of  the  dead,  and  you  will  find  that  though  peo- 
ple there  had  a  great  difference  of  worldly  circum- 
stances, now  their  bodies  are  all  alike  unconscious. 
The  hand  that  greeted  the  senator,  and  the  president, 
and  the  king,  is  still  as  the  hand  that  hardened  on 
VOL.  XI.  381 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

the  mechanic's  hammer,  or  the  manufacturer's  wheel. 
It  does  not  make  any  difference  now,  whether  there 
is  a  plain  stone  above  them,  from  which  the  traveller 
pulls  aside  the  weeds  to  read  the  name,  or  a  tall  shaft 
springing  into  the  heavens  as  though  to  tell  their 
virtues  to  the  skies.  In  that  silent  land  there  are  no 
titles  for  great  men,  and  there  are  no  rumbUngs  of 
chariot-wheels,  and  there  is  never  heard  the  foot  of 
the  dance.  Ihe  Egyptian  guano  which  is  thrown  on 
the  fields  in  the  East  for  the  enrichment  of  the  soil, 
is  the  dust  raked  out  from  the  sepulchres  of  kings 
and  lords  and  mighty  men.  O  the  chagrin  of  those 
men  if  they  had  ever  known  that  in  the  after  ages 
of  the  world  they  would  have  been  called  Egyptian 
guano ! 

Of  how  much  worth  now  is  the  crown  of  Caesar? 
Who  bids  for  it?  Who  cares  now  anything  about 
the  Amphitryronic  Council  or  the  laws  of  Lycurgus? 
Who  trembles  now  because  Xerxes  crossed  the  Hel- 
lespont on  a  bridge  of  boats?  Who  fears  because 
Nebuchadnezzar  thunders  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem? 
Who  cares  now  whether  or  not  Cleopatra  marries 
Antony?  Who  crouches  before  Ferdinand,  or  Boni- 
face, or  Alaric?  Can  Cromwell  dissolve  the  English 
ParHament  now?  Is  William  Prince  of  Orange,  king 
of  the  Netherlands  ?  No ;  no !  However  much  Eliza- 
beth may  love  the  Russian  crown,  she  must  pass  it  to 
Peter,  and  Peter  to  Catherine,  and  Catherine  to  Paul, 
and  Paul  to  Alexander,  and  Alexander  to  Nicholas. 
Leopold  puts  the  German  sceptre  into  the  hand  of 
Joseph,  and  Philip  comes  down  ofif  the  Spanish 
throne  to  let  Ferdinand  go  on.  House  of  Aragon, 
house  of  Hapsburg,  house  of  Stuart,  house  of  Bour- 
bon, quarreUng  about  everything  else,  but  agreeing 
in  this :  "  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away." 
But  have  all  these  dignitaries  gone  ?  Can  they  not  be 

382  VOL.  XI, 


Contentment 

called  back  ?  I  have  been  to  assemblages  where  I  have 
heard  the  roll  called,  and  many  distinguished  men 
have  answered.  If  I  should  call  the  roll  to-day  of 
some  of  those  mighty  ones  who  have  gone,  I  wonder 
if  they  would  not  answer.  I  will  call  the  roll.  I  will 
call  the  roll  of  the  kings  first:  Alfred  the  Great! 
William  the  Conqueror!  Frederick  II!  Louis 
XVI !  No  answer.  I  will  call  the  roll  of  the  poets : 
Robert  Southey!  Thomas  Campbell!  John  Keats! 
George  Crabbe !  Robert  Burns !  No  answer.  I  will 
call  the  roll  of  artists :  Michael  Angelo !  Paul  Vero- 
nese! William  Turner!  Christopher  Wren!  No  an- 
swer. Eyes  closed.  Ears  deaf.  I.ips  silent.  Hands 
palsied.  Sceptre,  pencil,  pen,  sword,  put  down  for- 
ever.   Why  should  we  struggle  for  such  baubles? 

Another  reason  why  we  should  cultivate  this  spirit 
of  cheerfulness  is  the  fact  that  God  knows  what  is 
best  for  his  creatures.  You  know  what  is  best  for 
your  child.  He  thinks  you  are  not  as  liberal  with 
him  as  you  ought  to  be.  He  criticises  your  disci- 
pline, but  you  look  over  the  whole  field,  and  you, 
loving  that  child,  do  what  in  your  deliberate  judg- 
ment is  best  for  him.  Now,  God  is  the  best  of  fathers. 
Sometimes  his  children  think  that  he  is  hard  on 
them,  and  that  he  is  not  as  liberal  with  them  as  he 
might  be.  But  children  do  not  know  as  much  as  a 
father.  I  can  tell  you  why  you  are  not  affluent,  and 
why  you  have  not  been  successful. 

It  is  because  you  cannot  stand  the  temptation.  If 
your  path  had  been  smooth,  you  would  have  de- 
pended upon  your  own  surefootedness ;  but  God 
roughened  that  path,  so  you  have  to  take  hold  of  his 
hand.  If  the  weather  had  been  mild,  you  would  have 
loitered  along  the  water-courses ;  but  at  the  first  howl 
of  the  storm  you  quickened  your  pace  heavenward, 
VOL.  XI.  383 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

and  wrapped  around  you  the  robe  of  a  Saviour's 
righteousness. 

Who  are  those  before  the  throne?  The  answer 
came :  "  These  are  they  who,  out  of  great  tribulation, 
had  their  robes  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb."  Would  God  that  we  could  understand 
that  our  trials  are  the  very  best  thing  for  us.  If  we 
had  an  appreciation  of  that  truth,  then  we  should 
know  why  it  was  that  John  Noyra,  the  martyr,  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  flame,  reached  down  and  picked  up 
one  of  the  fagots  that  was  consuming  him,  and  kissed 
it,  and  said,  "  Blessed  be  God  for  the  time  when  I  was 
born  for  this  preferment !  "  They  who  suffer  with 
him  on  earth,  shall  be  glorified  with  him  in  heaven. 
Be  content,  then,  with  such  things  as  you  have. 

Another  consideration  leading  us  to  the  spirit  of 
the  text,  is  the  assurance  that  the  Lord  will  provide 
somehow.  Will  he  who  holds  the  water  in  the  hol- 
low of  his  hand  allow  his  children  to  die  of  thirst? 
Will  he  who  owns  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  and 
all  the  earth's  luxuriance  of  grain  and  fruit,  allow 
his  children  to  starve?  Go  out  to-morrow  morning 
at  five  o'clock,  into  the  woods,  and  hear  the  birds 
chant.  They  have  had  no  breakfast,  they  know  not 
where  they  will  dine,  they  have  no  idea  where  they 
will  sup;  but  hear  the  birds  chant  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  "  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air ;  for  they 
sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns, 
yet  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not 
much  better  than  they  ?  " 

Five  thousand  people,  in  Christ's  time,  went  into 
the  desert.  They  were  the  most  improvident  people 
I  ever  heard  of.  They  deserved  to  starve.  They 
might  have  taken  food  enough  to  last  them  until  they 
got  back.  Nothing  did  they  take.  A  lad,  who  had 
more  wit  than  all  of  them  put  together,  asked  his 

384  VOL.  XI. 


Contentment 

mother  that  morning  for  some  loaves  of  bread  and 
some  fishes.  They  were  put  into  his  satchel.  He 
went  out  into  the  desert.  From  this  provision  the 
five  thousand  were  fed,  and  the  more  they  ate  the 
larger  the  loaves  grew,  until  the  provision  that  the 
boy  brought  in  one  satchel  was  multiplied  so  he  could 
not  have  carried  the  fragments  home  in  six  satchels. 
"  Oh,"  you  say,  "  times  have  changed,  and  the  day 
of  miracles  has  gone."  I  reply  that,  what  God  did 
then  by  miracle,  he  does  now  in  some  other  way, 
and  by  natural  laws.  "  I  have  been  young,"  said 
King  David,  "  and  now  am  old;  yet  have  I  never  seen 
the  righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  bread." 
It  is  high  time  that  you  people  who  are  fretting  about 
worldly  circumstances,  and  who  are  fearing  that  you 
are  coming  to  want,  understood  that  the  oath  of  the 
Eternal  God  is  involved  in  the  fact  that  you  are  to 
have  enough  to  eat  and  to  wear. 

Again:  I  remark  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  the 
grandest  influence  to  make  a  man  contented.  Indem- 
nity against  all  financial  and  spiritual  harm !  It  calms 
the  spirit,  dwindles  the  earth  into  insignificance,  and 
swallows  up  the  soul  with  the  thought  of  heaven. 
O  ye  who  have  been  going  about  from  place  to  place, 
expecting  to  find  in  change  of  circumstances  some- 
thing to  give  solace  to  the  spirit,  I  commend  you  to 
the  warm-hearted,  earnest,  practical,  common-sense 
religfion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  "  There  is  no 
peace,  saith  my  God,  for  the  wicked,"  and  as  long  as 
you  continue  in  your  sin,  you  will  be  miserable. 
Come  to  Christ.  Make  him  your  portion  and  start 
for  heaven,  and  you  will  be  a  happy  man  —  you  will 
be  a  happy  woman. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  inducements  to  a 
spirit  of  contentment,  I  have  to  tell  you  that  the 
human  race  is  divided  into  two  classes  —  those  who 
VOL.  XI.  385 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

scold,  and  those  who  get  scolded.  The  carpenter 
wants  to  be  anything  but  a  carpenter,  and  the  mason 
anything  but  a  mason,  and  the  banker  anything  but 
a  banker,  and  the  lawyer  anything  but  a  lawyer,  and 
the  minister  anything  but  a  minister,  and  everybody 
would  be  truly  happy  if  he  were  only  somebody  else. 
Ah,  you  never  make  any  advance  through  such  a 
spirit  as  that.  You  cannot  fret  yourself  up ;  you  may 
fret  yourself  down.  Amid  all  this  grating  of  tones 
I  strike  this  string  of  the  Gospel  harp :  "  Godliness 
with  contentment  is  great  gain.  We  brought  noth- 
ing into  the  world,  and  it  is  very  certain  we  can  carry 
nothing  out;  having  food  and  raiment,  let  us  there- 
with be  content." 

Let  us  all  remember,  if  we  are  Christians,  that  we 
are  going  after  a  while,  whatever  be  our  circumstances 
now,  to  have  a  glorious  vacation.  As  in  summer  we 
put  off  our  garments,  and  go  down  into  the  cool  sea 
to  bathe,  so  we  will  put  off  these  garments  of  flesh, 
and  step  into  the  cool  Jordan.  We  will  look  around 
for  some  place  to  lay  down  our  weariness,  and  the 
trees  will  say :  "  Come  and  rest  under  our  shadow ;" 
and  the  earth  will  say :  "  Come  and  sleep  in  my 
bosom ;"  and  the  winds  will  say :  "  Hush !  while  I 
sing  thee  a  cradle  hymn ;"  and  while  six  strong  men 
carry  us  out  to  our  last  resting-place,  and  ashes  come 
to  ashes,  and  dust  to  dust,  we  will  see  two  scarred 
feet  standing  amid  the  broken  soil,  and  a  lacerated 
brow  bending  over  the  open  grave,  while  a  voice, 
tender  with  all  affection,  and  mighty  with  all  omnipo- 
tence, will  declare :  "  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Life ;  he  that  beHeveth  in  Me,  though  he  were  dead, 
yet  shall  he  live."  Comfort  one  another  with  these 
words. 


386  VOL.  XI. 


REMINISCENCES 

Psalm,  39:  3:  "While  I  was  musing,  the  fire  burned." 


REMINISCENCES 

Psalm,  39:  3:  "While  I  was  musing,  the  fire  burned." 

Here  is  David,  the  Psalmist,  with  the  forefinger 
of  his  right  hand  against  his  temple,  and  the  door  shut 
against  the  world,  engaged  in  contemplation.  And  it 
would  be  well  for  us  to  take  the  same  posture  often, 
while  we  sit  down  in  sweet  solitude  to  contemplate. 

In  a  small  island  oflf  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  I 
once  passed  a  Sabbath  in  delightful  solitude,  for  I  had 
resolved  that  I  would  have  one  day  of  entire  quiet 
before  I  entered  upon  autumnal  work.  I  thought  to 
have  spent  the  day  in  laying  out  plans  for  Christian 
work;  but  instead  of  that  it  became  a  day  of  tender 
reminiscence.  I  reviewed  my  pastorate;  I  shook 
hands  with  an  old  departed  friend,  whom  I  shall  greet 
again  when  the  curtains  of  life  are  lifted.  The  days 
of  my  boyhood  came  back,  and  I  was  ten  years  of  age, 
and  I  was  eight,  and  I  was  five.  There  was  but  one 
house  on  the  island,  and  yet  from  Sabbath  daybreak, 
when  the  bird-chant  woke  me,  until  the  evening 
melted  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  from  shore  to  shore 
there  were  ten  thousand  memories,  and  the  groves 
were  a-hum  with  voices  that  had  long  ago  ceased. 

Youth  is  apt  too  much  to  spend  all  its  time  in 
looking  forward.  Old  age  is  apt  too  much  to  spend 
all  its  time  in  looking  backward.  People  in  mid-life 
and  on  the  apex  look  both  ways.  It  would  be  well  for 
us,  I  think,  however,  to  spend  more  time  in  reminis- 
cence. By  the  constitution  of  our  nature  we  spend 
most  of  the  time  looking  forward.  And  the  vast  ma- 
voL.  XI.  389 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

jority  of  people  live  not  so  much  in  the  present  as  in 
the  future.  I  find  that  you  mean  to  make  a  reputa- 
tion, you  mean  to  establish  yourself,  and  the  advan- 
tages that  you  expect  to  achieve  absorb  a  great  deal  of 
your  time.  But  I  see  no  harm  in  this,  if  it  does  not 
make  you  discontented  with  the  present,  or  disqualify 
you  for  existing  duties.  It  is  a  useful  thing  sometimes 
to  look  back,  and  to  see  the  dangers  we  have  escaped, 
and  to  see  the  sorrows  we  have  suffered,  and  the  trials 
and  wanderings  of  our  earthly  pilgrimage,  and  to  sum 
up  our  enjoyments.  I  mean,  so  far  as  God  may  help 
me,  to  stir  up  your  memory  of  the  past,  so  that  in  the 
review  you  may  be  encouraged  and  humbled  and 
urged  to  pray. 

There  is  a  chapel  in  Florence  with  a  fresco  by 
Giotto.  It  was  covered  up  with  two  inches  of  stucco 
until  our  American  and  European  artists  went  there, 
and  after  long  toil  removed  the  covering  and  retraced 
the  fresco.  And  I  am  aware  that  the  memory  of  the 
past,  with  many  of  you,  is  all  covered  up  with  oblitera- 
tions, and  I  now  propose,  so  far  as  the  Lord  may  help 
me,  to  take  away  the  covering,  that  the  old  picture 
may  shine  out  again.  I  want  to  bind  in  one  sheaf  all 
your  past  advantages,  and  I  want  to  bind  in  another 
sheaf  all  your  past  adversities,  and  I  must  be  cautious 
how  I  swing  the  scythe. 

Among  the  greatest  advantages  of  your  past  life 
was  an  early  home  and  its  surroundings.  The  bad 
men  of  the  day,  for  the  most  part,  dip  their  heated  pas- 
sions out  of  the  boiling  spring  of  an  unhappy  home. 
We  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  Byron's  heart  was  a 
concentration  of  sin,  when  we  hear  that  his  mother 
was  abandoned,  and  that  she  made  sport  of  his  in- 
firmity, and  often  called  him  "  the  lame  brat."  He 
who  has  vicious  parents  has  to  fight  every  inch  of  his 
way  if  he  would  maintain  his  integrity,  and  at  last 

390  VOL.  XI. 


Reminiscences 

reach  the  home  of  the  good  in  heaven.  Perhaps  your 
early  home  was  in  a  city.  It  may  have  been  when 
Pennsylvania  avenue,  Washington,  was  residential  as 
now  it  is  commercial,  and  Canal  street,  New  York, 
was  far  up-town.  That  old  house  in  the  city  may 
have  been  demolished  or  changed  into  stores,  and  it 
seemed  like  sacrilege  to  you — for  there  was  more 
meaning  in  that  small  house  than  there  is  in  a  granite 
mansion  or  turreted  cathedral.  Looking  back  you  see 
it  as  though  it  were  only  yesterday  the  sitting-room, 
where  the  loved  one  sat  by  the  plain  lamp,  the 
mother  at  the  evening  stand ;  the  brothers  and  sisters, 
perhaps  long  ago  gathered  into  the  skies,  then  plot- 
ting mischief  on  the  floor  or  under  the  table;  your 
father  with  firm  voice  commanding  a  silence  that 
lasted  half  a  minute. 

Oh,  those  were  good  days!  If  you  had  your  foot 
hurt,  your  mother  always  had  a  soothing  salve  to  heal 
it.  If  you  were  wronged  in  the  street,  your  father  was 
always  ready  to  protect  you.  The  year  was  one  round 
of  frolic  and  mirth.  Your  greatest  trouble  was  an 
April  shower,  more  sunshine  than  shower.  The  heart 
had  not  been  ransacked  by  trouble,  nor  had  sickness 
broken  it,  and  no  lamb  had  a  warmer  sheepfold  than 
the  home  in  which  your  childhood  nestled. 

Perhaps  you  were  brought  up  in  the  country. 
You  stand  now  to-day  in  memory  under  the  old  tree. 
You  clubbed  it  for  fruit  that  was  not  quite  ripe,  be- 
cause you  couldn't  wait  any  longer.  You  hear  the 
brook  rumbling  along  over  the  pebbles.  You  step 
again  into  the  furrow  where  your  father  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves shouted  to  the  lazy  oxen.  You  frighten  the 
swallows  from  the  rafters  of  the  barn,  and  take  just 
one  egg,  and  silence  your  conscience  by  saying  they 
will  not  miss  it.  You  take  a  drink  again  out  of  the 
very  bucket  that  the  old  well  fetched  up.  You  go 
VOL.  XI.  391 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmagc 

for  the  cows  at  night,  and  find  them  pushing  their 
heads  through  the  bars.  Oftentimes  in  the  dusty  and 
busy  streets  you  wish  you  were  home  again  on  that 
cool  grass,  or  in  the  rag-carpeted  hall  of  the  farm- 
house, through  which  there  came  the  breath  of  new- 
mown  hay  or  the  blossom  of  buckwheat. 

You  may  have  in  your  windows  now  beautiful 
plants  and  flowers  brought  from  across  the  seas,  but 
not  one  of  them  stirs  in  your  soul  so  much  charm 
and  memory  as  the  old  ivy  and  the  yellow  sunflower 
that  stood  sentinel  along  the  garden-walk,  and  the 
forget-me-nots  playing  hide  and  seek  mid  the  long 
grass.  The  father  who  used  to  come  in  sunburnt 
from  the  field,  and  sit  down  on  the  doorsill  and  wipe 
the  sweat  from  his  brow  may  have  gone  to  his  ever- 
lasting rest.  The  mother,  who  used  to  sit  at  the 
door  a  little  bent  over,  cap  and  spectacles  on,  her 
face  mellowing  with  the  vicissitudes  of  many  years, 
may  have  put  down  her  gray  head  on  the  pillow  in 
the  valley;  but  forget  that  home  you  never  will. 
Have  you  thanked  God  for  it?  Have  you  rehearsed 
all  these  blessed  reminiscences?  Oh,  thank  God  for 
a  Christian  father ;  thank  God  for  a  Christian  mother ; 
thank  God  for  an  early  Christian  altar  at  which  you 
were  taught  to  kneel;  thank  God  for  an  early  Chris- 
tian home. 

I  bring  to  mind  another  passage  in  the  history 
of  your  life.  The  day  came  when  you  set  up  your 
own  household.  The  days  passed  along  in  quiet 
blessedness.  You  twain  sat  at  the  table  morning  and 
night,  and  talked  over  your  plans  for  the  future.  The 
most  insignificant  affair  in  your  life  became  the  sub- 
ject of  mutual  consultation  and  advisement.  You 
were  so  happy  you  felt  you  never  could  be  any  hap- 
pier. One  day  a  dark  cloud  hovered  over  your  dwell- 
ing, and  it  got  darker  and  darker;  but  out  of  that 

392  VOL.  XI. 


Reminiscences 

cloud  the  shining  messenger  of  God  descended  to 
incarnate  an  immortal  spirit.  Two  little  feet  started 
on  an  eternal  journey,  and  you  were  to  lead  them,  a 
gem  to  flash  in  heaven's  coronet,  and  you  to  polish  it ; 
eternal  ages  of  light  and  darkness  watching  the  start- 
ing out  of  a  newly-created  creature.  Your  rejoiced 
and  you  trembled  at  the  responsibility  that  in  your 
possession  an  immortal  treasure  was  placed.  You 
prayed  and  rejoiced,  and  wept  and  wondered;  you 
were  earnest  in  supplication  that  you  might  lead  it 
through  life  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  There  was  a 
tremor  in  your  earnestness.  There  was  a  double  in- 
terest about  that  home.  There  was  an  additional  in- 
terest why  you  should  stay  there  and  be  faithful,  and 
when  in  a  few  months  your  house  was  filled  with  the 
music  of  the  child's  laughter,  you  were  struck  through 
with  the  fact  that  you  had  a  stupendous  mission. 

Have  you  kept  that  vow?  Have  you  neglected 
any  of  these  duties?  Is  your  home  as  much  to  you 
as  it  used  to  be?  Have  those  anticipations  been 
gratified?  God  help  you  in  your  solemn  remin- 
iscence, and  let  his  mercy  fall  upon  your  soul  if  your 
kindness  has  been  ill  requited.  God  have  mercy  on 
the  parent,  on  the  wrinkles  of  whose  face  is  written 
the  story  of  a  child's  sin.  God  have  mercy  on  the 
mother  who,  in  addition  to  her  other  pangs,  has  the 
pang  of  a  child's  iniquity.  Oh,  there  are  many,  many 
sad  sounds  in  this  sad  world,  but  the  saddest  sound 
that  is  ever  heard  is  the  breaking  of  a  mother's  heart ! 

I  find  another  point  in  your  life  history.  You 
found  one  day  you  were  in  the  wrong  road;  you 
could  not  sleep  at  night;  there  was  just  one  word 
that  seemed  to  sob  through  your  banking-house,  or 
through  your  office  or  your  shop  or  your  bedroom, 
and  that  word  was  "Eternity."  You  said:  "I'm 
not  ready  for  it.     O  God,  have  mercy."    The  Lord 

VOL.  XI.  393 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

heard.  Peace  came  to  your  heart.  In  the  breath 
of  the  hill  and  in  the  waterfall's  dash  you  heard  the 
voice  of  God's  love ;  the  clouds  and  the  trees  hailed 
you  with  gladness ;  you  came  into  the  house  of  God. 
You  remember  how  your  hand  trembled  as  you  took 
up  the  cup  of  the  communion.  You  remember  the 
old  minister  who  consecrated  it,  and  you  remember 
the  church  officials  who  carried  it  through  the  aisle ; 
you  remember  the  old  people  who  at  the  close  of 
the  service  took  your  hand  in  theirs  in  congratulating 
sympathy,  as  much  as  to  say :  "  Welcome  home,  you 
lost  prodigal ; "  and  though  those  hands  be  all  with- 
ered away,  that  communion  Sabbath  is  resurrected 
to-day ;  it  is  resurrected  with  all  its  prayers  and  songs 
and  tears  and  sermons  and  transfiguration.  Have 
you  kept  those  vows  ?  Have  you  been  a  backslider  ? 
God  help  you.  This  day  kneel  at  the  foot  of  mercy 
and  start  again  for  heaven.  Start  now  as  you  started 
then.     I  rouse  your  soul  by  that  reminiscence. 

But  I  must  not  spend  any  more  of  my  time 
in  going  over  the  advantages  of  your  life.  I  just 
put  them  in  one  great  sheaf,  and  I  call  them  up  in  your 
memory  with  one  loud  harvest  song,  such  as  the 
reapers  sing.  Praise  the  Lord,  ye  blood-bought  im- 
mortals on  earth !  Praise  the  Lord,  ye  crowned 
spirits  of  heaven ! 

But  some  of  you  have  not  always  had  a  smooth 
life.  Some  of  you  are  now  in  the  shadow.  Others  had 
their  troubles  years  ago  ;  you  are  a  mere  wreck  of  what 
you  once  were.  I  must  gather  up  the  sorrows  of  your 
past  life;  but  how  shall  I  do  it?  You  say  that  is  im- 
possible, as  you  have  had  so  many  troubles  and  ad- 
versities. Then  I  will  just  take  two,  the  first  trouble 
and  the  last  trouble.  As  when  you  are  walking  along 
the  street,  and  there  has  been  music  in  the  distance, 
you  unconsciously  find  yourselves  keeping  step  to  the 

394  VOL.  XI. 


Reminiscences 

music,  so  when  you  started  life  your  very  life  was  a 
musical  timebeat.  The  air  was  full  of  joy  and  hilarity; 
with  the  bright  clear  oar  you  made  the  boat  skip;  you 
went  on,  and  life  grew  brighter,  until  after  a  while,  sud- 
denly a  voice  from  heaven  said,  "Halt!"  and  quick 
as  the  sunshine  you  halted;  you  grew  pale,  you  con- 
fronted your  first  sorrow.  You  had  no  idea  that  the 
flush  of  your  child's  cheek  was  an  unhealthy  flush. 
You  said  it  cannot  be  anything  serious.  Death  in  slip- 
pered feet  walked  round  about  the  cradle.  You  did 
not  hear  the  tread ;  but  after  a  while  the  truth  flashed 
on  you.  You  walked  the  floor.  Oh,  if  you  could, 
with  your  strong,  stout  hand,  have  wrenched  that  child 
from  the  destroyer!  You  went  to  your  room,  and  you 
said,  ''God,  save  my  child!  God,  save  my  child!" 
The  world  seemed  going  out  in  darkness.  You  said, 
"  I  can't  bear  it,  I  can't  bear  it."  You  felt  as  if  you 
could  not  put  the  long  lashes  over  the  bright  eyes, 
never  to  see  them  again  sparkle.  If  you  could  have 
taken  that  little  one  in  your  arms,  and  with  it  leaped 
the  grave,  how  gladly  you  would  have  done  it!  If 
you  could  let  your  property  go,  your  houses  go,  your 
land  and  your  storehouse  go,  how  gladly  you  would 
have  allowed  them  to  depart  if  you  could  only  have 
kept  that  one  treasure! 

But  one  day  there  came  up  a  chill  blast  that  swept 
through  the  bedroom,  and  instantly  all  the  lights  went 
out,  and  there  was  darkness  —  thick,  murky,  impene- 
trable, shuddering  darkness.  But  God  did  not  leave 
you  there.  Mercy  spoke.  As  you  took  up  the  bitter 
cup  to  put  it  to  your  lips,  God  said:  "  Let  it  pass," 
and  forthwith,  as  by  the  hand  of  angels,  another  cup 
was  put  into  your  hands  ;  it  was  the  cup  of  God's  con- 
solation. And  as  you  have  sometimes  lifted  the  head 
of  a  wounded  soldier  and  poured  wine  into  his  lips,  so 
God  puts  his  left  arm  under  your  head,  and  with  his 
VOL.  XI.  395 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

right  hand  he  pours  into  your  hps  the  wine  of  his  com- 
fort and  his  consolation,  and  you  looked  at  the  empty 
cradle  and  looked  at  your  broken  heart,  and  you 
looked  at  the  Lord's  chastisement,  and  you  said: 
"  Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemeth  good  in  thy 
sight." 

Ah,  it  was  your  first  trouble.  How  did  you  get 
over  it?  God  comforted  you.  You  have  been  a  better 
man  ever  since.  You  have  been  a  better  woman  ever 
since.  In  the  jar  of  the  closing  gate  of  the  sepulcher 
you  heard  the  clanging  of  the  opening  gate  of  heaven, 
and  you  felt  an  irresistible  drawing  havenward.  You 
have  been  spiritually  better  ever  since  that  night  when 
the  little  one  for  the  last  time  put  its  arms  around 
your  neck  and  said,  "  Good-night,  papa;  good-night, 
mamma.    Meet  me  in  heaven." 

But  I  must  come  to  your  latest  sorrow.  What 
was  it?  Perhaps  it  was  sickness.  The  child's  tread  on 
the  stair  or  the  tick  of  the  watch  on  the  stand  dis- 
turbed you.  Through  the  long,  weary  days  you 
counted  the  figures  in  the  carpet  or  the  flowers  in  the 
wall-paper.  Oh,  the  weariness  of  exhaustion?  Oh, 
the  burning  pangs?  Would  God  it  were  morning, 
would  God  it  were  night,  was  your  frequent  cry.  But 
you  are  better,  or  perhaps  even  well.  Have  you 
thanked  God  that  to-day  you  can  come  out  in  the  fresh 
air;  that  you  are  in  your  place  to  hear  God's  name, 
and  to  sing  God's  praise,  and  to  implore  God's  help, 
and  to  ask  God's  forgiveness?  Bless  the  Lord  who 
healeth  all  our  diseases,  and  redeemeth  our  lives  from 
destruction ! 

Perhaps  your  last  sorrow  was  a  financial  embar- 
rassment. I  congratulate  some  of  you  on  your  lucra- 
tive profession  or  occupation,  on  ornate  apparel,  on  a 
commodious  residence  —  everything  you  put  your 
hands  on  seems  to  turn  to  gold.    But  there  are  others 

396  VOL.  XI. 


Reminiscences 

of  you  who  are  like  the  ship  on  which  Paul  sailed 
where  two  seas  met,  and  you  are  broken  by  the  vio- 
lence of  the  waves.  By  an  unadvised  indorsement,  or 
by  a  conjunction  of  unforeseen  events,  or  by  fire  or 
storm  or  a  senseless  panic,  you  have  been  flung  head- 
long, and  where  you  once  dispensed  great  charities 
now  you  have  hard  work  to  win  your  daily  bread. 
Have  you  forgotten  to  thank  God  for  your  days  of 
prosperity,  and  that  through  your  trials  some  of  you 
have  made  investments  which  will  continue  after  the 
last  bank  of  this  world  has  exploded,  and  the  silver 
and  gold  are  molten  in  the  fires  of  a  burning  world? 
Have  you,  amid  all  your  losses  and  discouragement's, 
forgotten  that  there  was  bread  on  your  table  this 
morning,  and  that  there  shall  be  a  shelter  for  your 
head  from  the  storm,  and  there  is  air  for  your  lungs 
and  blood  for  your  heart  and  light  for  your  eye  and 
a  glad  and  glorious  and  triumphant  religion  for  your 
soul? 

Perhaps  your  last  trouble  was  a  bereavement. 
That  heart  which  in  childhood  was  your  refuge,  the 
parental  heart,  and  which  has  been  a  source  of  the 
quickest  sympathy  ever  since,  has  suddenly  become 
silent  forever.  And  now  sometimes,  whenever  in 
sudden  annoyance  and  without  deliberation  you  say: 
"  I  will  go  and  tell  mother,"  the.  thought  flashes  on 
you :  "  I  have  no  mother."  Or  the  father,  with  voice 
less  tender,  but  with  heart  as  loving,  watchful  of  all 
your  ways,  exultant  over  your  success  without  saying 
much,  although  the  old  people  do  talk  it  over  by 
themselves,  his  trembling  hand  on  that  staff  which 
you  now  keep  as  a  family  relic,  his  memory  embalmed 
in  grateful  hearts,  is  taken  away  forever.  Or  there 
was  your  companion  in  life,  sharer  of  your  joys  and 
sorrows,  taken,  leaving  the  heart  an  old  ruin,  where 
the  ill  winds  blow  over  a  wide  wilderness  of  desola- 
voL.  XI.  397 


Sermons  by  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 

tion,  the  sands  of  the  desert  driving  across  the  place 
which  once  bloomed  like  the  garden  of  God.  And 
Abraham  mourns  for  Sarah  at  the  cave  of  Machpelah. 
As  you  were  moving  along  your  path  in  hfe,  sud- 
denly, right  before  you,  was  an  open  grave.  People 
looked  down,  and  they  saw  it  was  only  a  few  feet 
deep  and  a  few  feet  wide,  but  to  you  it  was  a  cavern, 
down  which  went  all  your  hopes  and  all  your  ex- 
pectations. But  cheer  up  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Comforter.  He  is  not  going  to 
forsake  you.  Did  the  Lord  take  that  child  out  of 
your  arms?  Why,  he  is  going  to  shelter  it  better 
than  you  could.  He  is  going  to  array  it  in  a  white 
robe  and  palm  branch,  and  have  it  all  ready  to  greet 
you  at  your  coming  home.  Blessed  the  broken  heart 
that  Jesus  heals !  Blessed  the  importunate  cry  that 
Jesus  compassionates  !  Blessed  the  weeping  eye  from 
which  the  soft  hand  of  Jesus  wipes  away  the  tear ! 

Some  years  ago  I  was  sailing  down  the  St.  John 
river,  which  is  the  Rhine  and  the  Hudson  commingled 
in  one  scene  of  beauty  and  grandeur,  and  while  I 
was  on  the  deck  of  the  steamer  a  gentleman  pointed 
out  to  me  the  places  of  interest,  and  he  said :  "All 
this  is  interval  land,  and  it  is  the  richest  land  in  all 
the  provinces  of  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia." 
"  What,"  said  I,  "  do  you  mean  by  '  interval  land?  '  " 
"  Well,"  he  said,  "  this  land  is  submerged  for  a  part 
of  the  year ;  spring  freshets  come  down,  and  all  these 
plains  are  overflowed  with  the  water,  and  the  water 
leaves  a  rich  deposit,  and  when  the  waters  are  gone 
the  harvest  springs  up,  and  there  is  a  richer  harvest 
than  I  know  of  elsewhere."  And  I  instantly  thought : 
"  It  is  not  the  heights  of  the  Church,  and  it  is  not 
the  heights  of  this  world  that  are  the  scene  of  the 
greatest  prosperity,  but  the  soul  over  which  the  floods 
of  sorrow  have  gone ;  the  soul  over  which  the  fresh- 

398  VOL.  XI. 


Reminiscences 

ets  of  tribulation  have  torn  their  way,  that  yields  the 
greatest  fruits  of  righteousness  and  the  largest  har- 
vest for  time,  and  the  richest  harvest  for  eternity." 
Bless  God  that  your  soul  is  interval  land ! 

There  is  one  more  point  of  absorbing  reminis- 
cence, and  that  is  the  last  hour  of  life,  when  we  have 
to  look  over  all  our  past  existence.  What  a  moment 
that  will  be !  I  place  Napoleon's  dying  reminiscence 
on  St.  Helena  beside  Mrs.  Judson's  dying  reminis- 
cence in  the  harbor  of  St.  Helena,  the  same  island, 
twenty  years  after.  Napoleon's  dying  reminiscence 
was  one  of  delirium — Tete  d'armee — "  Head  of  the 
Army."  Mrs,  Judson's  dying  reminiscence,  as  she 
came  home  from  her  missionary  toil  and  her  Ufe  of 
self-sacrifice  for  God,  dying  in  the  cabin  of  the  ship 
in  the  harbor  of  St.  Helena,  was :  "  I  always  did  love 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  And  then,  the  historian  says, 
she  fell  into  a  sound  sleep  for  an  hour,  and  woke 
amid  the  songs  of  angels.  I  place  the  dying  remin- 
iscence of  Augustus  Cffisar  against  the  dying 
reminiscence  of  the  apostle  Paul.  The  dying  rem- 
iniscence of  Augustus  Caesar  was,  addressing  his 
attendants :  "  Have  I  played  my  part  well  on  the 
stage  of  life  ? "  and  they  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
and  he  said :  "  Why,  then,  don't  you  applaud  me  ?  '* 
The  dying  reminiscence  of  Paul  the  apostle  was :  "  I 
have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course, 
I  have  kept  the  faith ;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for 
me  a  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 
righteous  Judge,  will  give  me  in  that  day,  and  not 
to  me  only,  but  to  all  them  that  love  his  appearing." 
Augustus  Caesar  died  amid  pomp  and  great  surround- 
ings. Paul  uttered  his  dying  reminiscence  looking 
up  through  the  wall  of  a  dungeon.  God  grant  that 
our  dying  pillow  may  be  the  closing  of  a  useful  Ufe, 
and  the  opening  of  a  glorious  eternity. 
VOL.  XI.  399 


INDEXES 


< 


INDEXES 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

A  glance  at  the  following  Indexes  will  show  their  purpose 
and  value.  The  Texts  of  Sermons  are  first  given  in  Biblical 
order,  they  then  appear  in  conjunction  with  the  Titles  of 
Sermons  in  alphabetical  order.  The  titles  are  indexed  as  fully 
as  cross-references  will  permit.  The  Index  of  Anecdotal  and 
Historical  Illustrations  will  afiford  a  mine  of  wealth  to  the 
preacher,  Sunday-school  teacher  and  Christian  worker.  In 
the  Index  of  Subjects  those  dwelt  upon  at  any  length  will  be 
found  in  groups,  while  others  more  lightly  touched  upon  are 
dismissed  with  a  line.  While  nothing  short  of  a  concordance 
would  exhibit  all  the  variety  of  Dr.  Talmage's  presentations 
of  truth,  familiarity  with  these  Indexes  will  prove  their 
thoroughly  practical  and  comprehensive  character. 


INDEX  OF  TEXTS 


Text.  Page. 

Genesis,    3:   6 67 

Genesis,    22:    7 317 

Genesis,    45:    28 195 

Exodus,  3 :  I 223 

Deuteronomy,    22 :    s 9 

Joshua,   24:    IS 23 

Joshua,    15:    19 109 

Judges,    s:    28 343 

Ruth,    i:    14 149 

Ruth,  2:  3 165 

I.    Samuel,   25:   2 53 

I.   Samuel,  30:   24 271 

I.   Kings,    17:   6 287 

Psalm   39:   3 387 

VOL.    XI.  403 


Text.  Page. 

Psalm  55 :  22 303 

Proverbs,     10:     i 135 

Proverbs,    14:    i 37 

Proverbs,   30:    28 241 

The  Song  of  Solomon,  6:  8..  79 

Isaiah,    66:    13 255 

Matthew,    19:    24 209 

Mark,    5:     19 123 

Luke,    15:    18 359 

T.   Timothy,   5:   6 93 

II.   Timothy,    i:   5 179 

Hebrews.    13:    5 375 

Revelation,  21 :  4 331 


Index 


INDEX  OF  TITLES  AND  TEXTS 


America,  Women  of,  37. 
Battle  for  Bread,  The,  287. 
Beautiful  Gleaner,   The,   165. 
Bread,  The  Battle  for,  287. 
Contentment,  375. 
Daughter,   The   Sheik's,   223. 
Deuteronomy,     22 :     s — Dominion 

of  Fashion,  9. 
Dominion  of  Fashion,  9. 
Duty,  Garrison,  271. 
Exodus,        3:        i — The        Sheik's 

Daughter,   22'^. 
Fashion,  Dominion  of,  9. 
First  Woman,  The,  67. 
Garrison  Duty,  271. 
Genesis,  3;  6 — The  First  Woman, 

67. 
Genesis,     22:     7— Isaac    Rescued, 

317- 
Genesis,   45:   28— The   Old   Folks' 

Visit,  195. 
Gleaner,  The  Beautiful,  165. 
God,  A  Motherly,  255. 
Grandmother,   The,    179. 
Happiness,  Woman's,  93. 
Harbor  of  Home,   123. 
Heavy  Loads,  303. 
Hebrews,      13:      5 — Contentment, 

375- 
Home,  Harbor  of,  123. 
Home,  The  Queens  of,  79. 
Homesickness,  359. 
Homestead,  The  Old,  23. 
Isaac  Rescued,  317. 
Isaiah,      66:       13 — A      Motherly 

God,  255. 
Joshua,       15:       19 — A      Wedding 

Present,  109. 
Joshua,    24:    15 — The   Old    Home- 
stead, 23. 
Judges,   5:    28 — Where's    Mother? 

343. 
I.    Kings,    17:    6— The   Battle    for 

Bread,  287. 
Loads,  Heavy,  303. 
Luke,  15:   18 — Homesickness,  359. 
Mark,    5:    19 — Harbor    of    Home, 

123. 
Marriages,  Worldly,  53. 
Martyrs  of  the  Needle,  209. 


Matthew,  19:  24 — Martyrs  of  the 
Needle,  209. 

Motherly  God,  A,  255. 

Mother?,  Where's,  343. 

Needle,   Martyrs  of  the,  309. 

Old  Folks'   Visit,  The,    195. 

Old  Homestead,  The,   23. 

Orpah's   Retreat,    149. 

Pain,   331. 

Palaces,  Spiders  in,  241. 

Parents,  Treatment  of,   135. 

Present,  A  Wedding,   109. 

Proverbs,  10:  i — Treatment  of 
Parents,   135. 

Proverbs,  14:  1 — Women  of 
America,  37. 

Proverbs,  30:  28 — Spiders  in  Pal- 
aces, 241. 

Psalm   39:   3 — Reminiscences,   387. 

Psalm   55:  22 — Heavy  Loads,  303. 

Queens  of  Home,  The,   79. 

Reminiscences,    387. 

Rescued,  Isaac,  317. 

Retreat,   Orpah's,    149. 

Revelation,    21:    4 — Pain,    331. 

Ruth,  i  :  14 — Orpah's  Retreat, 
149. 

Ruth,  2:  3 — The  Beautiful  Glean- 
er, 165. 

I.  Samuel,  25:  2 — Worldly  Mar- 
riages, 53. 

I.  Samuel,  30:  24 — Garrison  Duty, 
271. 

Sheik's    Daughter,   The,    223. 
Spiders  in   Palaces,   241. 
Song  of  Solomon,  The,  6:  8 — The 
Queens  of  Home,   79. 

II.  Timothy,  i  :  5 — The  Grand- 
mother,  179. 

I.  Timothy,  5:  6 — Woman's  Hap- 
piness, 93. 
Treatment  of  Parents,    135. 
Visit,  The  Old  Folks',   195. 
Wedding    Present,   A,    109. 
Where's  Mother?   343. 
Woman,   The   First,  67. 
Woman's  Happiness,  93. 
Women  of  America,   37. 
Worldly   Marriages,   53. 


404 


VOL.   XI. 


Index 

INDEX  OF  ANECDOTAL  AND  HISTORICAL 
ILLUSTRATIONS 


Abercrorabie  studying  philosophy 
while  waiting,    177 

Actress,  Order  of  dying,  222. 

Amagansett,  Crew  at,  almost 
saved,   but  lost,  370. 

Andrews,  Captain,  and  the  grate- 
ful   passengers,    280. 

Antoinette,    Marie,    calming    mob. 

Army,  Northern,  defeat  of  through 

commander's    drunkenness,    274. 
Atticus,     Pomponious,     Testimony 

of,  concerning  mother,   191. 
Audubon,    Loss  and    patience    of, 

127. 
Bannockburn,      Battle      of,      why 

lost,  274. 
Barnes,       Albert,      regretting      to 

leave  world,  96. 
Bethune,  Dr.  G.  W.,  Grandmother 

of,    189. 
Bird     called     huma,      legend      of 

shadow     and    crown    connected 

with  the,   253. 
Birdseye's,  Mr.,  prayer  for  water, 

295- 

Boggsey,  the  drunkard.  Drinking 
to  memory  of,  213. 

Brady,  Mrs.,  at  Chickahominy,  83. 

Breckinridge,  Margaret,  among  the 
wounded,  83. 

Bride,  Talmage's  story  of  disap- 
pointed, 97. 

Bridge,  Defective  span  of,  352. 

Burritt,  EHhu,  gleaning  knowl- 
edge when   working,    177. 

Ceylon,  the  granite  column  and 
world's  end,   187. 

Chalmers,  Helen,  Talmage  in 
chapel  of,  85. 

Charlie's      letter      from      mother, 

352- 

Child  who  asked  "  Is  God  Dead?  " 
27. 

Child  who  wanted  to  pick  flowers 
in  Heaven,  299. 

Cleopatra,  Caesar  won  by,  65. 

Coal,  Prayer  for,  in  Chicago,  an- 
swered,  299. 

VOL.   XI.  405 


College,    Son    that    went    to,    and 

family's  struggle,  281. 
Comstock,    Mrs.    S.    D.,   giving   up 

children  for  Christ,  20. 
Corday,  Charlotte,  killing  assassin. 

Crew,      at      Amagansett,      almost 

saved,  but  lost,  369. 
Dropsy,    man    dying    of,    Joy    of, 

116. 
Drunkard,  just  dead.   Drinking  to 

memory  of,  213. 
Egmont,  Martyr,  and  the  loosened 

collar,  311. 
Elizabeth,       Queen,       of      Castile, 

cheering  the  troops,  20. 
Elizabeth,    Queen,    and   shadowless 

picture,    112. 
Epaminondas    reciting   victories   to 

parents,  206. 
Evangelist   and   barrel   of  flour   in 

distress,   306. 
Field,     Barren,    and    the    farmer, 

262. 
Fillmore,   President,   Father  of,   at 

Washington,  201. 
Florence,      Dying,      saying      "  So 

soon,"   119. 
Fontenelle      and      woman      whom 

death  had   forgotten,  235. 
Fresco,   Giotto's  covered,   390. 
Garfield  and  his  mother  at  inaugu- 
ration, 352. 
Girard,     Stephen,     Discontent     of, 

113. 
Goodwin,    Dr.,    Happy    death    of, 

116. 
Green,    Ashbel,    why    he    worked, 

211. 
Greenough,      Horatio,      on      life's 

cheerfulness,  96. 
Harris,    Mrs.,    beautified    by    ser- 
vice among  soldiers,   103. 
Heretic,  Seeing  the,  in  the  mirror, 

362. 
Hervey,      Elizabeth,      Consecration 

of,  20. 
Hodge,    Mrs.,   and    Christian   com- 
mission, 83. 


Index 


Hogarth's  picture  and  George  III., 

I  12. 

Houston,  Senator,  and  his  mother, 

351- 
Huma,  Legend  of  the  bird,  253. 
Husband,   dying  in  West,   anxious 

for  wife's  presence,  82. 
Husband,      Dying,     who     charged 

wife  with  soul's  ruin,  90. 
Hymn,    Story  of  a,   280. 
Indian,  Princely  bargain  with,  for 

a  string  of  beads,   161. 
Infidel   who    wished    to   be   buried 

with        Christian        wife        and 

daughter,   59. 
Internal  laws,  A  lesson  from  the, 

398. 
Judson's,     Mrs.,    and    Napoleon's 

dying  utterances  contrasted,  39. 
Lad,    Liverpool,      drowning,      but 

saved,   though   mourned   as  lost, 

367. 
Lamb,  Charles,  Discontent  of,  113. 
Lawrence,      John,      Children      of, 

cheering  at  death,  206. 
Lennox's,    Mrs.,    happy    death    at 

Smyrna,  20. 
Lord   who   wished   he   was   a   dog, 

98. 
Lover,  Woman's  divine,  64. 
Man  at  war  whose  wife  prayed  and 

children  dug,   28. 
Margaret,  Happy  death  of,   106. 
Napoleon   and   Mrs.   Judson,  their 

dying  utterances  contrasted,  399. 
Nellie,    Daughter,    and    the    dying 

Scotchman,    268. 
Newell,    Harriet,    Consecration   of, 

20. 
Noyra,  John,  Kissing  burning  fag- 
got, 384. 
Octogenarian,      Talmage's      happy, 

95- 

Ostius,  Lucius,  parricide,  146. 

Pastor,  Brilliant,  whom  trouble  im- 
proved,  168. 

Patience,  Wonderful,  of  Audubon, 
127. 

Paul  and  Augustus  Caesar,  Last  ut- 
terances of,  contrasted,   399. 

Pea  crop.  Memorable,  in  Essex, 
29s 

Philadelphia,  Dying  soldier's  sor- 
rows for  mother  at,   102. 


Philadelphia's  extemporized  hospi- 
tal in  war-time,   102. 

Pigeon's  fed  in  Venice,  329. 

Printer's  useless  advertisement  for 
women,   47. 

Prodigal  who  never  reached  home, 
370. 

Prodigal   who    reached   home,   371. 

Prodigals,    Story    of   two,    370 

Rawlings'  injunction  to  black- 
smith, 323. 

Rochelle,  Siege  of,  and  supply  of 
shell-fish,  295. 

Roland,  Madame,  Unhappy  alliance 
and  heroic  death  of,  56. 

Ross,  Annie,  in  hospital  work,  83. 

Sailor  haunted  by  mother's  pray- 
ers,   89. 

Sailor  who  went  to  sea  in  spite  of 
mother's  entreaties,  367 

St.    Mark's,    Pigeons  fed  at,   326. 

Scotchman,  Dying  and  daughter 
Nellie,   266. 

Shelton,  Mrs.,  Soldier's  testimony 
to,   83. 

Sheridan's,  Brinsley,  dying  cry, 
113. 

Silver,  Refining  of,  and  its  lesson, 
262. 

Soldier,  Dying  French,  and  the 
rye  loaf  from  home,  140. 

Soldier  who  thought  angel  touched 
him,    103. 

Son,  Reply  of,  to  father  who 
thought  he  had  the  worst  boy, 
140. 

Stael,  Madame  de,  boast  about 
trades,    176,    213. 

Talmage  carries  old  women  up- 
stairs,   326. 

Talmage  at  dinner  with  four  gen- 
erations,  137. 

Talmage,  Editor's  question  to, 
about  happiness,  93. 

Talmage's  grandmother's  memor- 
able evening  of  prayer,  parents' 
conversion  and  mother's  prayer 
covenant,  31. 

Talmage  in  Helen  Chalmers' 
Chapel,    85. 

Talmage  and  parents'  "  tender 
sorrow,"     199. 

Talmage  and  President  Fillmore's 
father,   201. 


406 


VOL.    XI. 


Index 


Talmage's  visit  to  dying  Margaret, 

1 06. 
Talmage's  father  on  trusting  God, 

306. 
Theodosius,    W'ife's    reminder    to, 

202. 
Trapper,     Western,     and     traveler 

at  prayer  time,  30. 
Water,  Mr.   Birdseye's  prayer  for, 

answered,  295. 


Woman,  Drowning,  singing  "  Je- 
rusalem,"  381. 

Woman,  Sewing,  at  Philadelphia 
Conference,  218. 

Woman,  Starving,  faints  in  Brook- 
lyn Tabernacle  vestibule,   219. 

Wren,   Story  of  exalted,  289. 

Young  man.  Drowning,  sending 
bag  of  gold  to  mother,  308. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Abigail,  Marriage  of,  a  warning 
to  women,   56. 

Abner,  Meaning  of  name,   137. 

Abraham,  Call  of,  to  sacrifice 
Isaac,  obedience  of,  320,  jour- 
ney to  Mt.  Moriah,  321;  and 
Agamemnon,  323. 

Absaloms  no  better  than  Delilahs, 
63. 

Abscesses  healed  in  answer  to 
prayer,   313. 

Accountability,  Capacity  the  meas- 
ure of,   278. 

Achsah's   wedding   gift,    112. 

Advantages,    Past,    recalled,    389. 

Adversity,  Friends  in,   171. 

Adversity,  school  of.  Black  let- 
ters in,  258. 

Adversities,  Past,  recalled,  389. 

Affectation   about   pictures,    379. 

Affection,  Warm,  often  leads  to 
the  world,  rather  than  to  God, 

153- 
Affliction  a  refining  process,  262. 
Agamemnon  and  Abraham  not  com- 
parable, 323. 
Age,  Happiness  increases  with,  95. 
Aged,  Good  occupation  for,  234. 
Agrippina,    Influence    of,    on    son 

Nero,   35 1. 
Ailments,    physical,    God's    solace 

in,   311. 
Amalekites,     David     defeats     the, 

274. 
Ancestry,    Pious,    a    blessing,    232. 
Apple  woman,  Apparent  happiness 

of,  380. 
Arms,  Divine,  that  will  carry,  326. 
AVmy,    Amalekite,    Carousal    and 

defeat  of  the,    274. 
VOL.   XI.  407 


Army    changing  quarters,    273. 

Army,  Prussian,  seized  with  oph- 
thalmia,  338. 

Audubon  and  the  birds,  289. 

Battle  between  Christ  and  soul, 
157.    163. 

Battle  for  bread,  289.  {See 
Elijah   and   the   Ravens.) 

Battle  for  bread.  Universality  of, 
292. 

Battles,  Statistics  of  slain  in,  338. 

Bay  of  Fundy,  Sabbath  at,  389. 

Beauty  not  to  be  despised,  101; 
of  Abigail  and  David,  10 1; 
time's   hoof-marks   on,    :02. 

Beginnings  of  great  men,   231. 

Behavior  at  home  and  abroad, 
126. 

Bereavements,  Divine  comfort  in, 
313- 

Bible,  family.  Casting  a  blot  on, 
141. 

Bible,   Ornithology   of,   289. 

Bible   a   parental  letter,   257. 

Bible,   Talmage's   old    family,    233. 

Biographical,  Personal,  a  volume 
of  mercy,   296. 

Birds  that   fed  a  prophet,   290. 

Bitterness  worse  from  golden 
chalices   than   pewter   mugs,    16. 

Bloomerism   and   indecency,    9. 

Bluntness  of  speech,  Canoniza- 
tion   of,    II. 

Boys  and  noise,   138. 

Brahma,  Hindus'  belief  in,  as  crea- 
tor,  115. 

Bread  from  Heaven,    141. 

Bread  that  saved  a  mother's 
soldier-boy,   141. 

Bread,  Universal  battle  for.  292. 


Index 


Breadwinners,  Pictures  of  the, 
^92. 

Bridegrooms,    Drunken,   64. 

Bunyan,   Trouble  developed,    168. 

Burdens,  David  on,  305;  in  busi- 
ness, 307;  of  persecution,  309; 
of  physical  ailments,  311;  of 
bereavement,   313;   of  sin,   314. 

Burdens  to  be  taken  up  cheerfully, 
324- 

Business,   Burdens  in,   307. 

Business,   Rivalries  in,   307. 

Business,  Seeking  God's  help  in, 
308. 

Byron's    few    happy    days,    380. 

Byron,  Influence  of  mother  upon, 
351;  answer  of,  to  charge  of 
mother's   folly,   351. 

Byron's  mother.  Abandonment  of, 
390. 

Csesar,  Augustus,  and  Paul,  Last 
utterances   of,    contrasted,    399. 

Cain,  Tubal,  Great  results  from 
invention  of,    174. 

Caleb  a  type  of  God,  112;  wedding 
present  of,  to  Achsah,  suggest- 
ing advantages  of  grace  here, 
and  glory   hereafter,    iii. 

Call,  God's  double,  238. 

Calm  after  storm  is  God's  smile, 
257. 

Capacity  the  measure  of  accounta- 
bility,   278. 

Captain  who  gave  to  Church  be- 
cause it  increased  clam-diggers' 
honesty,   59. 

Care,    God's   parental,    293. 

Care,     God's     providing,     assured, 

384 
Carleton,  W.,  his  poorhouse  poem, 

205;   his   apotheosis   of   maiden- 
hood,   205. 
Carob  tree  in  Asia  Minor,  361. 
Castle,    Imprisonment    in   the,    the 

fate  of  some  women,  61. 
Catherine,    Empress,    Ambition   of, 

76. 
Celibates,    Christ,    John    and    Paul 

were,  205. 
Celibacy,   Honored  by   Christ,   65; 

by   Paul,  65. 
Centenarians,  Instances  of,   i97- 
Central  America,  Wreck  of,   308. 
Chalmers,  Helen,  51. 


40S 


Character,  Good  and  genial,  first 
requisites   in   a   husband,    57. 

Character,  home  and  out,  often 
differs,    126. 

Character,  Home  a  test  of,   126. 

Characters,  Most  unlovely  and  un- 
likely, often  taken  hold  of  by 
grace,   152. 

Characters,  Weak  point  in  great, 
247. 

Charms,  Personal,  a  poor  de- 
pendence for  happiness,   100. 

Child,   Birth  of  first,   393. 

Child,  Departed,  leading  to  God, 
298. 

Child  and  father  in  thunder-storm, 
257- 

Child,  Death  of  first,  recalled,  396. 

Childhood,  Force  of  impressions 
in,   351- 

Children,  Deceased,  do  remain 
children,   200 

Christ,  Battle  of,  with  soul,  157, 
163. 

Christ,  Compensations  and  adver- 
sity of,   173. 

Christ,  Happiness  assured  through, 
105. 

Christ,   the   helpful,   222. 

Christ,  Loving  all  but,   154. 

Christ,  Man's  ill-treatment  of,  311. 

Christ,  persecuted,  but  vindicated, 
173- 

Christ,  Sacrifice  of,  typified  in 
Isaac  and  in  ram  provided  on 
Mount    Moriah,    319. 

Christ,  No  substitute  for,  327; 
Isaac  a  type  of,  327;  over- 
whelmed by  man's  sorrows,  328; 
a  willing  sacrifice,   328. 

Christian,  Woman  more  easily  be- 
comes a,  than  man,   88. 

Christians  may  be  wealthy,  58. 

Christianity  and  art  not  antago- 
nistic,   12. 

Church  of  Christ    a  palace,  247. 

Ciphers,  No,  in  God's  arithmetic, 
265. 

Clothes,    Power    of,    14. 

Clothing,   woman's,  Bible  upon,  9. 

Collar,    Egmont   and   the  loosened, 

311- 
Coffin,  Father's,  often  altar  of  pen- 
itence   for    sinning   son,   29. 

VOL.   XI, 


Index 


Comfort,  Divine,  like  the  comfort 
of  a  mother,  257;  in  instruction, 
259;  in  sympathy  for  the  weak, 
261 ;  in  tending  small  hurts, 
265;  in  patience  for  the  erring, 
266;  in  touch,  267;  in  soothing 
to  sleep,  268. 

Comfort,  Fountain  of,  spring  out 
of  disaster,   169. 

Competition,  business.  Keenness 
of,  307. 

Condition,  Earthly  differences  of, 
are   transient,   381. 

Conduct,  Parental,  that  forfeits 
right  to  children's   respect,    138. 

Constantinople,  Lack  of  grave- 
diggers  in,  338. 

Contentment,  Common  sense  of, 
378. 

Contentment,  called  for  by  pos- 
session of  life's  indispensables, 
378;  because  happiness  is  not 
dependent  on  outward  circum- 
stances, 379;  because  differences 
of  earthly  condition  are  tran- 
sient, 381 ;  because  God  knows 
what  is  best  for  us,  383;  because 
he  will  provide,  384;  religion 
conducive  to,   385. 

Conversion,     time     of.     Recalling, 

394- 
Conviction,    Darkness    of,    ending 

in  joy,   172. 
Cook,   Dr.,  on  spiders,   243. 
Corcoran,     W.     V\^,     and     Louise 

Home,    229. 
Crcle,  Joseph,  of  Pennsylvania,  a 

centenarian,    197. 
Cross  of  sinner  heavier  than  cross 

of   saint,    157. 
Cross,    World    has    a,     for    every 

Saviour,   310. 
Crosses,   Crowns  out  of,    169. 
Courage,    Moses',    Illustration    of, 

236. 
Cruelty,  God  not  to  be  condemned 

as  guilty  of,  296. 
Curiosity,  helpful.  Good  from,  71; 

unhealthy   and   ruinous,   72. 
Damnation,    universal,     Man    who 

believed  in,  310. 
Darnley     and     Mary     Queen     of 

Scots,   76. 
Daughters,  Devotion  of,  to  parents, 

204. 
VOL.   XI.  409 


Daughters  urged  to  manifestatioii 
of  filial  love,  99. 

David  halted  by  Abigail,   loi. 

David,  Raid  of,  on  Amalekites, 
274. 

David  taking  his  own  medicine, 
305;  on  burden,  305. 

Death  of  fashion's  devotee,  19. 

Death,  Road  to,  not  pleasant,   156. 

Death  a  vacation,  386. 

Death  of  worldling,   26. 

Debir,  Caleb,  Othniel  and  Achsah, 
III. 

De  Stael,  Madame,   Boast  of,  213. 

Destruction,  Travelers  to,  not  all 
in  rags,   18. 

Devotion  to  parents,  201. 

Dignitary,  American  welcome  to 
foreign,   of  evil   repute,  63. 

Disappointments,  Many,  in  earthly 
life,  334. 

Disappointments,  No,  in  Heaven, 
333- 

Disaster,  Comforts  spring  out  of, 
169. 

Disaster,  Financial,  small  loss  to 
good  man,  14. 

Disease,  Physical,  caused  by  over- 
devotion   to   fashion,   17. 

Discontent,    American,   378. 

Dix,  Dorothea,  50. 

Doctors  of  divinity,  Mean,   13. 

Dove  and  vulture,  Marriage  of,  40. 

Draughts,  The  Gospel,  341. 

Drink,  strong,  Deceptiveness  of, 
73- 

Drink,  strong.  Lives  lost  through, 
41- 

Eagles,  gold,  vs.  black  ravens,  295. 

Earth  surface.  Changes  in,   120. 

Earthquake,  Rocking  of,  the  rock- 
ing of  God's  cradle,  264. 

Eden,   Beauties  of,  69. 

Editor's   question   to   Talmage,   95. 

Elijah,    Preparation    of,    225. 

Elijah  and  the  ravens,  290;  God  of, 
our  God,  293;  suggesting  God's 
parental  care,  293;  limit  of  sup- 
ply to  need,  294;  supplies  from 
unlikely  sources,  297;  mistakes 
in  interpreting  divine  provi- 
dences,   297. 

Elizabeth,   Queen,   Failing^  of,   76. 

Embarrassments,  Past  financial, 
recalled,  396. 


Index 


Encouragement  for  lowly  work- 
ers, 276;  for  veterans  laid  aside, 
282;   aged  ministers,  284. 

Engineer,  The  forgotten,  280. 

England,  Two  ducal  palaces  in, 
and  miserable  wives,  62. 

Estrays,  Male,  should  be  cata- 
logued  with    female   estrays,   63. 

Eve,  Creation  of,  69;  and  forbid- 
den fruit,  70;  lessons  from,  71; 
danger  of  unhealthy  curiosity, 
71;  fruits  sweet  to  taste  may 
produce  agony,  73;  sin  more 
repelling  when  appended  to 
great  attractiveness,  75;  regal 
influence   of    women,    76. 

Events,  Insignificant,  often  prove 
momentous,    174. 

Evil  sometimes  reaches  high 
places,  247. 

Extremity,    God's    relief    in,    sure, 

325- 

Face,  Woman  should  not  worship 
her,    loi. 

Faith  cure,   312. 

Faith,  God's  lifelong  lesson  of, 
258. 

Fall  of  man.  Terrible  results  of, 
70,  74- 

Families  divided  by  religious 
choice,   158. 

Farmer  and  barren  field,  262. 

Fashion  not  to  be  despised,  104; 
worship  of,  denounced,  104; 
Jewish,   plate,    104. 

Fashion-plates   and  morals,  9. 

Fashion  to  be  regarded  as  a  re- 
former, 11;  as  an  usurper,  1 1 ; 
wrong  produces  ruinous  rivalry, 
14;  wrong  demands  of,  14; 
wrong  incompatible  with  happi- 
ness, 16;  wrong,  devotion  to,  pro- 
duces physical  disease,  17;  is 
an  intellectual  depletion,  17; 
blasts  the  soul,   18. 

Fashion,  Wrong,  makes  people  un- 
natural and  untrue,   15. 

Fathers,  Fidelity  of,  in  toil  for 
children,   144. 

Favorite,  Mother's,  always  the 
weakling,   262. 

Fidelity,  filial,  Incidents  of,  206; 
Epaminondas',  206;  iEneas',206; 
Lawrence,  John,  children  of, 
206;  Christ,  206. 


Fidelity,  Maternal,  355. 

Fidelity  of  men  in  lowly  places  ob- 
served by   God,    278. 

Fire,  Bushes  of,  that  call  workers, 
238. 

First-born,  Advent  of,  393. 

Fisk,  Fidelia,  50. 

Flattery  a  poor  ground  of  happi- 
ness,   103. 

Folly,  Fashionable,  ruin  to  soul, 
19.     {See  Fashion.) 

Food,  Plain,  in  accord  with  God's 
plan,  294;  God's  infinite  re- 
sources of,  294;  God  has  abund- 
ance of,  299. 

Fool's  errand,  God  never  sends 
on  a,  86. 

Frankness  of  speech,  counterfeit, 
II. 

Friends  in  adversity,   171. 

Friendship,  unfaltering.  Beauty  of, 
170. 

Garrison  duty,  273;  setting  forth 
the  divine  recognition  and  re- 
ward of  lowly  and  unknown 
workers,  and  of  veterans  often 
overlooked  by  men,  273 ;  duty, 
as  important  as  duty  at  the 
front,   276. 

Generations,  Talmage  at  the  house 
with  four,   137. 

Germanicus,  Many  antagonists  of, 
309. 

Girls,  Advice  to,  on  self-support, 
229. 

Gladstone  reading  in  Hawarden 
Church,  235. 

Gladstone,  Talmage's  interview 
with,   236. 

Gleaner,  The  beautiful,  167.  (.See 
Ruth.) 

Gleaning,  Value  of,   176. 

God,    Always    safe   to    trust,    306. 

God  of  Elijah,  our  God,  293;  par- 
ental care  of,  293. 

God  knows  what  is  best  for  his 
creatures,   383. 

God,  Memory  of,  knows  where  to 
find  workers,  232. 

God,  A  motherly,  257;  showing 
that  God  has  mother's  simplicity 
of  instruction,  258;  teaches  by 
pictures,  259;  teaches  by  para- 
bles, 259;  has  a  mother's  favor- 
itism, 261;  has  a  mother's  capa- 


410 


VOL.   XL 


Index 


city  for  tending  little  hurts,  265 ; 
has  a  mother's  patience  with  the 
erring,  266;  hand  of,  is  a  moth- 
er's hand,  267;  has  a  mother's 
way  of  putting  to  sleep,  268. 

God  not  to  be  condemned  as  gtuilty 
of  cruelty,  296. 

God  not  a  God  to  be  doubted,  163. 

God,  Work  of,  always  done  well, 
246. 

Gossip,  Fattening  on,  72. 

Gospel,  Clock  of,  strikes  twelve, 
3^9- 

Gospel,  Invitation  of,  329. 

Grace,  a  hammer  that  breaks 
rocks,  subdues  hard  natures,  152. 

Graham,  Isabella,  Letter  of,  on 
sailor  son,   iqo. 

Grandmother,  The,  setting  forth 
lasting  and  weighty  nature  of 
ancestral  influence,  181;  Godly 
blessing  of  a,  183;  Talmage's, 
184. 

Grandmothers  not  better  than 
granddaughters,   182. 

Grave,  Brightness  of,  314. 

Grave,  a  cradle  with  soft  pillow  of 
promises,  268. 

Grave  illuminated  by   Christ,   252. 

Grave  the  cradle  of  God's  chil- 
dren, 268;  soft  with  the  pillow 
of  promises,  268. 

Greatness,   Earthly,  transient,  381. 

Green  Mountain,  draught  on, 
Talmage's,  340. 

Griffin,  M.,  and  the  condemned 
sailor's  pardon,  371. 

Grip,  Gouge  &  Co.,  not  the  only 
business  firm,   308. 

Groans  not  marketable,  25. 

Guano,  Egyptian  mummies  of 
kings  called,  382. 

Habit,  Evil,  in  good  man's  char- 
acter, 247. 

Hall,  Bishop,  Trouble  developed, 
168. 

Happiness  not  dependent  on  cir- 
cumstances, 379;  depends  on 
right  heart,  381. 

Happiness,  Worldly,  not  without 
its  drawbacks,  158;  Ahab  and 
Naboth,  158;  Ilaman  and  Mor- 
decai,  158;  Herod  and  the  babes, 
158;  Byron,  158;  only  solid  in 
religion,   158. 

VOL.   XI.  411 


Harbor  of  home,  125.  (See 
Home.) 

Havelock,  Trouble  developed,   168. 

Health,  Luxury  of,  378. 

Heart,  source  of  happiness,  381. 

Heaven,  City  of,  all  homes,   193. 

Heaven,  Glories  of,  349. 

Heaven,  home  in,  Talmage's  dream 
of,   133- 

Heaven  a  palace,  249;  with  splen- 
dor of  apartments,  249;  splen- 
dor of  associations,  249;  splen- 
dor of  banquet,  250;  not  too 
good   for  the  redeemed,   250. 

Heaven,  Receipt  of  good  tidings 
in,  147. 

Heaven,  Sanitary  conditions  of, 
333;  no  pain  of  disappointments 
in,  333;  realization  of  will  ex- 
ceed anticipation,  334;  no  pain 
of  weariness  in,  334;  no  pain 
of  poverty,  335;  no  pain  of  part- 
ing.  336;   no  pain  of  body,  337. 

Heaven,  Sight  of,  would  unfit  for 
earth's  duties,  117;  crevice 
glimpses  of,  117;  glories  of,  118. 

Ileavec,  Starting  for,  not  arrived 
at,   155. 

Herschel,  Caroline,  51. 

Hind's  feet,  Illustration  from,  244. 

Hippocrene,  Fountain  of,  and  harp 
ot    Pegasus,    169. 

Home,  Effect  of  thought  of,  on 
wandering  son,  140. 

Home  life.  Early,  recalled,  390. 

Home,  own.  First  setting  up, 
392. 

Home  should  be  a  castle,  247. 

Home,   Summering  at,  377. 

Home  a  test  of  character,  126; 
variation  in  meaning  of,  126;  a 
refuge,  128;  a  political  safe- 
guard, 129;  a  school,  129;  a 
type  of  Heaven,  131;  a  har- 
bor, 128;  hearthstone  of,  cor- 
ner-stone of  Republic,  129; 
Christian  principle  in  Tal- 
mage's early,  131;  memory  of, 
keeps  from  sin,  131;  of  Heaven, 
i3i- 

Home,  usefulness  at,  Lost  oppor- 
tunities for,   104. 

Homes,  Shipwreck  of,  unavoidable, 
354- 

Homes,  Spiders  get  into,  247. 


Index 


Homesickness  as  a  motive  power 
in  prodigal's  return  home,  361; 
among  soldiers,   366. 

Homestead,  The  old,  25;  setting 
forth  blessing  of  religion  in  the, 

25- 

Homelessness,    Death   better   than. 

128. 
Hospital,  Earth  a,  337. 
Humiliation  before  exaltation,  230. 
Husband,  First  requisite  in,  57. 
Husks  of  prodigal  and  carob  bean, 

361. 
Idleness,   Insignificance  no  excuse 

for,  245. 
Idols,   Love   of,   took   Orpah   back 

to   Moab,    159;    keep   men    from 

becoming  Christians,   160. 
Ill-treated   are   in    good    company, 

311. 
Impressions,   early.   Force  of,   351. 
Indolence     of      women     rebuked, 

175- 
Industry    of    women.    Beauty    of, 

175- 

Infidelity  incipient  insanity,   59. 

Influence,  maternal,  Potency  of, 
186;  testing,  186;  ancestral, 
cropping  out  in  succeeding  gen- 
erations,  189. 

Influence,   Maternal,  350. 

Influence,  maternal,  A  future  gen- 
eration's, 185;  maternal,  for  evil 
or  good,  prolonged  life  of,   187. 

Influence,  personal,  Power  of,  233. 

Ingratitude,   Filial,    144- 

Inquisitiveness  poorly  regulated. 
Consequences   of,    71. 

Insignificance  no  excuse  for  idle- 
ness, 245. 

Instruction,  Divine,  inculcated  by 
pictures,   259. 

Integrity,  World's  bad  treatment 
of,  310. 

Intellect,  Depletion  of,  caused  by 
over-devotion  to  fashion,  17. 

Inventions,  labor-saving.  No  more, 
wanted,   50. 

Isaac  rescued,  319;  Abraham's 
love  for,  319;  acquiescence  in 
God's  command  to  Abraham, 
322;  a  type  of  Christ  as  an 
only  son,  326;  appointed  for 
sacrifice,  326;  unlike  Christ,  for 
whom    no    substitute    was    pro- 


vided,  326;   carrying  the  wood, 
327;  a  willing  offering,  328. 
Jacob,    Bad   boys  of,    197;   dreams 
of,   198;  news  for,  from  Joseph, 
198;  seeing  Joseph,  200. 
Jethro,  Daughters  of,  225. 
Jethro,  Wealth  of,  225. 
John,  Raiment  and  food  of,   231. 
Joseph,    filial    treasure    of    father, 

202. 
Josephus   on    Sisera's   defeat,    347. 
Joshua,   Decision  of,   25. 
Judgment  of  America,  The,  160. 
Judgment,      Separations      in      the, 

taught  by  sorting  of  fish,  259. 
Jupiter,    Garlanded     sacrifice    for, 

62. 
Kentucky,  Scourge  in,  305. 
Kings,   Dust  of,   becomes   a   ferti- 
lizer, 382. 
Kintore,    Earl    of,    request    to    Dr. 

Talmage,  276. 
Kitto,  the  commentator,  God's  pur- 
pose for,  265. 
Kitto,  Trouble  developed,  168. 
Knox,    John,    bold    preacher,    232; 
French   captive,   232;    Earl   Mor- 
ton's tribute  to,   232. 
Lands,  interval,  A  lesson  from  the, 

398. 
Lessons     from     ordinary     things, 
man    slow    to    learn,    243;    from 
nature  in  Bible,  243. 
Letter,  Bible  a  parental,  257. 
Lexicography    of    trouble,    339. 
Life,     Loss     of,     through     strong 

drink,   41. 
Libertinism  in  man  denounced,  63; 
should  condemn  men  as  well  as 
women    in    society,    63. 
Life   like   fruit   should   be  mellow, 

96. 
Life,   Poorest  have  all  that  is  in- 
dispensable to,  378. 
Life,  Social,  in  rustic  communities, 

16. 
Lightning,    God's   eye,    257. 
Loads,    Heavy,    305.       CSee    Bur- 
dens.) 
Loathsomeness  in  climbing,  247. 
Longevity,   Instances  of,    197. 
Longevity,  Parental,  dependent  on 

children's   behavior,    140. 
Love,  neighborly  and  divine,  Les- 
son in,  by  parable,  260. 


412 


VOL.   XI. 


Index 


Love,   parental,   Strength  of,   201. 

Longevity  prolongs  and  increases 
responsibility,  235. 

Louise  Home  and  W.  W.  Corcoran, 
229. 

Luther  finding  Bible,  Great  results 
from,    174. 

Lyon,  Mary,  50. 

Magellan,  strait  of.  Contrary 
winds  at  the,  306. 

Mammon  keeping  men  from  Chris- 
tianity,  161. 

Mammoth  cave,  Talmage  in  the, 
251;  an  illustration  of  g^rave, 
252. 

Manners,  Good,  indispensable,   12. 

Man,  Trouble  of  the  rich,  in 
caring  for  bis  estate,  380. 

Margaret,  mother  of  criminals, 
181. 

Marriage  may  be  an  immortal 
union,  90. 

Marriage  for  money  denounced  as 
productive  of  women's  slavery 
and  sorrow,  illustrated  in  the 
case  of  Abigail  married  to  Nabal, 
S6. 

Marrying  to  reform,  40. 

Marriage  for  sake  of  money  de- 
nounced, 60;  sometimes  a  launch 
on  a  dead  sea,  61 ;  imprisonment 
in  a  castle,  61. 

Martyr  Rawlings,  Injunction  of, 
blacksmith,    373. 

Martyrs  of  the  needle,  211.  {See 
Women,  Good  for.) 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  Darn- 
ley,   76- 

McKail,  Persecution  developed, 
169. 

Mechanism,  Wonders  of  divine, 
244. 

Melville,  A.,  Persecution  de- 
veloped,  169. 

Memory,   God's  great,   232. 

Men,  great,  Beginnings  of,  231. 

Men  who   rose,   248. 

Men,  Womanish,  rebuked,   10. 

Ministers,  Call  of,  must  be  in 
fire,  238. 

Ministers  too  inquisitive,  71. 

Money,  Power  and  powerlessness 
of,  161. 

Morals  decided  by  fashion-plates, 
9- 

VOL.    XI.  413 


Moses,  and  Jethro's  daughter,  225; 
meets  Zepi>orah,  227;  preparation 
of,  for  life-work,  230;  call  of, 
shows  that  God  remembers,  232; 
call  of,  shows  that  God  knows 
where  to  find  his  workers,  232; 
called  in  old  age,  233;  courage 
of,  236;  call  written  in  fire,  238; 
thrilling  story  of,  239;  bowls  of 
gems  and  coals,  snakes  and 
ibises,  239;   funeral  of,  240. 

Mother,   Faithful  care  of,    145. 

Mother,  good,  Influence  of,  cast 
out  by  dissolute  son,  354. 

Mother,  loss  of,  Man  never  gets 
over,  366. 

Mother,  Loss  of,  recalled,  397. 

Mother,  Patience  of,  with  erring 
son,  266. 

Mother  receiving  news  of  dis- 
solute son's  death,   355. 

Mother?,  Where's,  243.  {See 
SisERA,  Mother  of;  also 
Mothers,  Influence  of.) 

Mothers,   Fidelity  of,   355. 

Mothers,  Glorified,  bearing  news 
from  earth,  356. 

Mothers,   Influence  of,  29. 

Mothers,  Influence  of,  on  chil- 
drens'  character,  350;  indebted- 
ness to,  352;  lost  image  of,  354; 
fidelity,  355. 

Mothers  in  Heaven  348. 

Mothers,    Old-time,   349. 

Mothers,  watching.  Great  number 
of,  346. 

Mysteries,     divine,     Prying     into, 

72- 

Nabel,  a  drunken  bloat,  55;  in- 
gratitude of,  to  David,  55;  why 
did    Abigail    marry,    55. 

Name,  family,  Disgracing  the,  141; 
woman's  part  in  sustaining  honor 
of,  141. 

Nantucket   and   the   wasting   land. 

Jig- 
Naomi  deserted  in  trouble,  170. 
Napoleon  on  life  and  death,  381. 
Napoleon's   soldiers   and    Dr.    Tal- 
mage, 282. 
Nations  need   trials,   169. 
Nature,  Bible's  many  lessons  from, 

243- 
Nature's  sublimest  scenes  free  to 

all.  379- 


Index 


Natures  that  resist  influences  of 
grace,    152. 

Needle,  Honor  of  plying,  211;  and 
Alexander  the  Great's  mother, 
211;  Queen  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, 211;  Emperor  and  Au- 
gustus, 211;  exhausting  toil  of, 
216. 

Needle  worthy  of  honor,  353. 

Needle's  eye.  Hardships  that  pass 
through  the,  211. 

Needlework,  honorable,  354;  in 
tabernacle,   354. 

Nero  growling  on  throne,  380. 

Nero,   Mother's   influence   on,   351. 

Newton,  Adelaide,  50. 

Noah,  scoffed  at,  but  vindicated, 
173- 

Nobility  of  soul,  prime  requisite, 
13. 

Novels,  French,  Reading,  72. 

Obedience  to  God  urged,  324. 

O'Ccnnell,  Trouble  developed,  168. 

Octogenarians,  Work  for,  234. 

Old  folks'  visit.  The,  197.  {See 
Parents,   Treatment  of.) 

Only's,  Two  great,  and  their  les- 
son, 326. 

Opportunities  of  home  usefulness 
lost,    104. 

Opportunities  for  usefulness. 
Abundance    of,    177. 

Ornithology  of  Bible,  289. 

Orpah's  retreat,  151;  illustrative  of 
fact  that  persons  of  fine  sus- 
ceptibility and  warm  affection 
are  not  always  subjects  of  con- 
verting grace,  151;  natural  im- 
pressibility not  a  sine  qua  non, 
152;  grace  subdues  hard  na- 
tures, 152;  Peter's  as  well  as 
John's,  1 52;  fineness  of  feeling  of- 
ten leads  persons  into  the  world 
rather  than  to  God,  153;  many 
persons  start  in  religious  mat- 
ters but  turn  back,  154;  having 
started,  it  takes  a  struggle  to 
turn  back,  156;  the  wilful  sin- 
ner has  struggles  as  well  as  the 
Christian,  156;  religion  or  the 
want  of  it  separates  families, 
158;  love  of  idols,  160;  and 
dread  of  self-denial  called  for 
by  religion,  hold  men  back  from 
God,  162. 


Othniel  and  Achsah,  iii. 
Overcomer,     Heaven's     cheer     for 

the,   237. 
Pain,   No,   in  Heaven,   333.      {See 

Heaven,      Freedom      of,      from 

Pain.) 
Pain,  none  in  Heaven,  333. 
Pain,    Universality    of,    on    earth, 

337- 

Parents,  aged.  Children  should 
never  be  ashamed  of,   192. 

Parents'  devotion  to  children  com- 
mended, 201. 

Parents,  Interest  of,  in  their  chil- 
dren, 137;  often  to  blame  for 
unfilial  children,  137;  disagree- 
able in  old  age,  to  be  borne 
with,  139;  fidelity  of,  144;  self- 
sacrifice  of,  14s;  no  law  against 
murder  of,  in  Rome  because  un- 
dreamed of,  146;  hurt  by  son's 
dissipation,   146. 

Parents,  loyal  devotion  by  daugh- 
ters urged,  99. 

Parents,  Strong  love  of,  201; 
blessing  in  visits  of,  202;  ill- 
treatment  of,  203;  daughter's  de- 
votion to,   204. 

Parents,  Treatment  of,  by  their 
children,  suggestions  from 
Joseph's  fidelity  to  Jacob,   197. 

Parents,  Treatment  of,  should  be 
filial  in  spite  of  possible  dis- 
agreeableness  and  as  a  return 
for  past  parental  fidelity,  137;  to 
whom  children  owe  nothing,  138. 

Parting,  No,  in  Heaven,  336. 

Paths,  Dark,  ending  in  joy,  72; 
sometimes  compulsory,   171. 

Patience,  God's  inexhaustible, 
258. 

Paul's  letter  to  Timothy,  181. 

Paul  singing  in  a  dungeon,  380. 

Pearls  from  wounds,  264. 

Pedigree,  Family,  recalled  by 
God,  233. 

Penny,  Virpnia,  on  employments 
of  women,  47. 

People,  old.  Disagreeable  to  be 
home  with,   139. 

Persecution,  Divine  help  in,  309. 

Perseverance  will  mount,  248. 

Peter,   Conversion  of,  stronger  il- 
lustration   of    power    of    Holy 
Spirit  than  of  John,  152. 
414  VOL.   XI. 


Index 


Philadelphia,  Sewing  woman's  ad- 
dress at,  218. 

Pictures,  Mothers  teaching  by, 
259;  God  teaches  by,  259. 

Piety  to  be  shown  at  home,  128. 

Pleasure  of  relig^ion  illustrated, 
114. 

Pleasure,  sinful.  End  of,  73. 

Position,  God  assigns  us  to  the 
best,  125. 

Position,  Social,  does  not  make 
happiness,  97. 

Poverty  led  prodigal  home,  363. 

Poverty   not   necessarily   a   virtue, 

57- 

Poverty,  No,  in  Heaven,  335. 

Prayer,  Abscesses  healed  in  an- 
swer to,  313. 

Prayers,  family.  Importance  of, 
25;  depicted,  26;  elevating  and 
saving  influence  of,  in  after 
years,  27;  launch  the  day  right, 
28;  how  to  start,  28. 

Prayers  of  parents,  a  mountain  to 
climb    or    avalanche    to    destroy, 

34- 

Praying  and  digging,  296. 

Precedent,  in  divine  providence. 
Argument  from,  300. 

Prodigal,  Resolution  of,  a  wise 
one,  362;  formed  in  disgust  ot 
present  circumstances,  362; 
formed  in  a  feeling  of  home- 
sickness, 366;  immediately  put 
into  execution,  368. 

Providence,  color  of  God's,  Mis- 
take about,  297;  dark,  298. 

Providence,  Mistaken  interpreta- 
tions of,  297. 

Quarry  and  statue  illustrating  trial 
and  effects,  263. 

Queen  of  home.  The,  81.  (See 
Woman,  Christian.) 

Queen,  Woman  a,  81. 

Queens  of  self-sacrifice,  205. 

Rank,    False   sUndards  of,    13. 

Ravens,  Elijah  and,  290;  rabbis 
legend  about  source,  291;  criti- 
cism of  story  of,  291 ;  directed 
by  God,  291;  suggest  God's  care, 
293;  brought  no  surplus,  294; 
and  gold  eagles,  295 ;  unlikely 
sources  of  supply,  297. 

Rawlings'  command  to  blacksmith, 
323- 

VOL.    XI.  4IS 


Refuge,  Home  a,  128. 

Relief,  Divine,  at  last  pinch,  325. 

Religion  best  brightener  of  human 
face,    102. 

Religion,  Blessings  of,  in  the 
home,  25;  not  a  diminisher  of 
joys,  25 ;  should  have  cordial 
welcome,  25;  what  it  will  do, 
26;  should  be  let  in  at  front 
door,  30;  sometimes  wanted  but 
at  a  distance,  31. 

Religion  of  Christ  conducive  to 
contentment,  385. 

Religion,  Joy  of,   114. 

Religion  offers  only  solid  happi- 
ness, 158;  choice  in  matters  of, 
often  separate  families,  158;  self- 
denial  of,  keep  men  from  be- 
coming Christians,   162. 

Religion,  Pleasure  of,  114. 

Religion  a  present  satisfaction,  115. 

Religion  a  tremendous  personality, 
238. 

Reminiscences  of  David  in  contem- 
plation,  389;   helpful,   390. 

Reminiscences,  Early,  of  home  life, 
27;  of  past  advantages  and  ad- 
versities, 27. 

Renwick,  Persecution  developed, 
169. 

Republic,  Home's  hearthstone  cor- 
ner-stone of,  129. 

Reputations  easily  destroyed,  171. 

Resolutions  made  for  distant  time 
generally  useless,  368. 

Revival,  A,  that  started  with  a 
mother's  prayers,  31. 

Righteousness  tends  to  wealth,  57. 

Rivalry  ruinous  in  society,   14. 

Roland,  Madame,  Unhappy  alliance 
of,  s6. 

Roll-call  of  earth's  great,  383. 

Rudeness  is  sin,  12. 

Ruin  caused  by  rivalry  in  society, 
14- 

Ruin,  Sin's,  of  soul  proved  by 
God's  word,  364. 

Ruth,  Boaz  attracted  by,  167;  an- 
cestress of  Christ,  168;  lessons 
from  experience  of,  168;  trouble 
develops  character,  168;  beauty 
of  unfaltering  friendship,  170; 
dark  paths  often  end  in  joy,  171 ; 
insignificant  events  often  prove 
momentous,    174;   beauty    of   fe- 


Index 


male    industry,     175;    value    of 

gleaning,  176. 
Safeguard,  Home  a  political,   129. 
Sand,  George,  Consistency  of,  10. 
Satisfaction  in  religion,   115. 
Savings   bank,   The  first,   founded 

by  a  woman,  45. 
Scales,  God's  very  delicate,  265. 
School,  Home  a,  129. 
Scolders  and  scolded.  Human  race 

divided  into,  385. 
Scott  on  woman,  82. 
Scott,  Walter,   No  rest  but  grave 

for,  112. 
Sea,    Encroachments    on   land    by, 

120. 
Scbastopol  in  hell,  339. 
Self-support,     Women     should    be 

taught,  42. 
Separation     done    away     with     in 

Heaven,  336. 
Service,    Distinguished,    not   alone 

to  be  rewarded,  277. 
Sheik's  daughter.  The,  225.     (See 

Moses,   Preparation  or.) 
Sicknesses,  Past,  recalled,  396. 
Sin,    Awakened    soul's    return    to, 

not  without  struggle,   156. 
Sin,   burden  of,   God's  relief  for, 

314- 

Sin,  The  first,  70;  deceptiveness 
of,  73;  awful  ending  of,  73; 
more  repelling  when  accom- 
panied by  sinner's  attractiveness, 
75;  refinement  no  apology  or 
excuse  for,  76. 

Sin,  folly  of,  God  teaches,  by 
parable,  260. 

Sin,  Meanness  of,  361. 

Sin,  Memory  of  home  preventive 
of,   131- 

Sin,  No  real  enjoyment  in,   158. 

Sin,      Ruin      by,      easily     proved, 

364- 

Sin  tends  to  poverty,  57. 

Sin,  What  God  says  about,  364. 

Sinner,  Cross  of,  heavier  than 
cross  of  saint,  157;  joys  of,  not 
unmingled  with  sorrow,   158. 

Sisera,  Mother  of,  watching  at  the 
window  for  son's  return,  345; 
defeat  and  death  of,  34s;  a  sug- 
gestion to  watching  mothers, 
346;  defeat  of,  recorded  by 
Jorcphus,    347;   mother   of,   had 


costly  surroundings,  348;  fond- 
ness for  personal  adornment, 
353;  mother  of,  dissolute  char- 
acter of,  353. 

Society,  Ruinous  rivalry  in  super- 
ficialities of,    14. 

Sodom,  Many  souls  destroyed  be- 
tween, and  cities  of  refuge,  156. 

Soldier  reclaimed  by  forgiveness, 
266. 

Son,  111  effects  of  dissipation  of, 
on  parents,  140;  dishonoring 
family  name,  141 ;  causing  pain- 
ful distress,  142;  abbreviating 
parental  life,  140;  hurts  by  his 
ingratitude,  144;  and  loss  of 
spiritual  blessing,   146. 

Sorrows,   Past,  recalled,  394. 

Soul,  Nobility  of,  a  prime  requi- 
site, 13. 

Soul,  Ruin  of,  by  sin  proved  by 
God's  word,  364. 

Soul,  Why  talk  about  ruin  of, 
363. 

Sources  of  supply  for  God's  peo- 
ple. Unexpected,  297. 

Speech,  Bluntness  of,  not  neces- 
sarily frankness,   11. 

Spheres,  Seeking  great,   125. 

Spiders,  Dr.  Cook  on,  243 ;  men 
should  study,  243;  in  palaces, 
243;  a  lesson  in  divine  me- 
chanism, 244;  teach  that  insig- 
nificance is  no  excuse  for  inac- 
tion, 245;  what  God  does  he 
does  well,  246;  that  loathsome 
ness  will  sometimes  climb,  247; 
that  perseverance  will  mount, 
248. 

Splutter,  Goddess  of,  72. 

Spoils,  Division  of,  by  King  Da- 
vid, 275. 

Springs,  The  upper  and  nether,  of 
religion,   112. 

St.  Croix  river,  Rotating  island  in, 
120. 

St.  John  river  and  the  interval 
lands,  398. 

Stay-at-homes  by  compulsion  to  be 
rewarded,  276. 

Stone  blasted  from  quarry  that  be- 
came the  statue  of  a  conqueror, 
263. 

Stuff,  Abiding  by,  earned  reward, 
^75- 
416  VOL.   XI. 


Index 


Success  in  life,  lUustrations  of, 
248. 

Success,  why  not  permitted,  383. 

Suffering,  God's  special  favoritism 
towards,  262. 

Suffering,  Physical,  wide  as  the 
world,  in  all  ages,  337. 

Suitor,  The  rich  but  vile,  60. 

Summering  at  home,  377. 

Surplus,  Seeking  for  a,  295. 

Surroundings,  Earthly  and  celes- 
tial, contrasted,  349. 

Suscectibility,  Persons  of,  not  al- 
ways Christians,  152.. 

Sympathy,  Divine,  with  business 
men,  308. 

Sympathy,  Divine,  with  me- 
chanics, 309. 

Takrzewska,  Maria,  51. 

Talent,  One,  to  be  used  as  cer- 
tainly as  ten,  246. 

Talents,  Responsibility  for,  limited 
by  number  given  us,  278. 

Talleyrand,  Complaint  of,  114. 

Talmage  as  a  colporteur,  137. 

Talmage  and  Earl  of  Kintore's  re- 
quest, 276. 

Talmage  in  Edinburgh,  243. 

Talmage's  family  Bible,  33. 

Talmage    and    the    family    cradle, 

MS- 

Talmage  and  fighting  shepherds  at 
Oriental  well,  236. 

Talmage,  and  mother's  prayer,  28; 
his  father's  and  mother's  con- 
version, 32;  and  his  brother  Van 
Nest's  death,  33;  and  his  brother 
David's  death,  33. 

Talmage,  Dr.,  and  Napoleon's  vet- 
erans in   Paris,    282. 

Talmage  in  Nova  Scotia,  389. 

Talmage's  father's  last  years,  204; 
meeting  with  in  Heaven,  207. 

Talmage's  vision  of  home  in 
Heaven,    133. 

Tapestry  of  the  sky,  God's,  244- 

Teacher  and  class  of  rough  boys 
in    mission,    85. 

Teeth,  Countess  who  cut  three  sets 
of,  197. 

Thunder,   God's  voice,   257. 

Timothy's  good  grandmother,   181. 

Toilers,  God's  sympathy  with,  309. 

Tombstone  a  defense,   143. 

Trial,  a  great  educator,   168. 

VOL.  XI.  417 


Treatment,  111,  of  Christ,  311. 

Trial,  Fruits  of,  illustrated  by 
fanner  and  field,  262;  by  quarry 
and  statue,   263. 

Trials,  Blessing  of,  383. 

Trouble  develops  character,  168. 

Trouble,  Lexicography  of,  339. 

Trouble,  its  painful  nature  and 
blessed  results,  262. 

Trouble,  a  refining  process,  262. 

Trust  in  God,   Safety  of,  306. 

Tubal,  Invention  of,  great  results 
from,    1 74. 

War,  Some,  statistics  of  the  slain, 
338. 

Watts,  Isaac,  Long  visit  of,  25. 

Wealth  not  necessarily  a  crime, 
proved  by  good  men  who  use 
it  for  God,  58. 

Weariness,  No,  in  Heaven,  334. 

Wedding  trips   in   old   times,    378. 

Well,  Fight  at  Oriental,  described 
in  old  book,  226. 

Well,  Fight  at  Oriental,  seen  by 
Talmage,   226. 

Well,  Value  of,  in  the  East,  305. 

Well  of  tears.  All  men  have,  305. 

Wesley,  Susannah,  honored  in 
Heaven,   274. 

Wiley,   Bishop,   Death  of,   305. 

Wilson,  Vice-President,  and  his  in- 
temperate father,   138. 

Woman,  attire  of,   Bible  upon,  9. 

Woman,  Christian,  Solomon's  pic- 
ture of,  81;  mission  and  oppor- 
tunities of,  81;  in  Heaven,  91; 
coronation  of,   91. 

Woman  and  her  divine  lover,  64. 

Women's  happiness,  95;  secured 
by  usefulness  and  making  others 
happy,  96;  no  dependent  on 
social  position,  97;  personal 
charms,  100;  flatteries  of  men, 
103;  world's  discipleship,   104. 

Woman,  home  service  of.  Import- 
ance of,  to  be  rewarded,  277. 

Woman,  Idle,  no  happiness  for, 
212;  starving  in  Brooklyn  taber- 
nacle, 219;  sewing,  address  at 
Philadelphia,    218. 

Woman,  Nobility  of,  her  Chris- 
tian  influence,    76. 

Woman,  Picture  of,  81 ;  true  right 
of,  81 :  comforter  of  the  sick, 
8i;ofShuncm,  82;  Scott  on  min- 


Index 


istering,   82;    angel   in    war,   83; 

among    the    poor    destitute,    84; 

working   in    haunts    of    sin,    85 ; 

seeking    help    for    needy,    86;    a 

Deborah   in   disaster,   88;   aiding 

men  to  kingdom  of  Heaven,  88; 

easier    for,    to   become    Christian 

than  for  man,  88. 
Woman,   Regal  influence  of,   76. 
Woman,    Sacrifice   of,  on   financial 

altar,  60. 
Women     of    America,     39;     often 

called  to  build  their  own  homes, 

41. 
Women,    American,     Diet    of,    in 

1796,    182;   in    1782,   as  seen  by 

French   Chaplain,    183;   in   1812, 

183. 
Women,    Beauty    of    industry    of, 

175- 

Women,   Good,   still  alive,   182. 

Women,  Heresy  about,  39;  who 
support  men,  39;  celibacy  of, 
through  Civil  War,  41;  building 
their  own  houses,  41;  should  be 
taught  self-support,  42;  and 
music  teaching,  42;  and  pot- 
tery painting,  43;  and  elo- 
cution, 43;  who  supported 
themselves  during  Civil  War,  44; 
occupations  suited  to,  44;  Vir- 
ginia Penny,  on  employment  of, 
47;  awful  choice  for,  47;  two 
sad  sights  of,  48;  dead  from  dis- 
ease, 48;  lost  in  misfortune,  48; 
justice  will  come  to,  49;  chance 
for,  demanded,  50;  illustrations, 
so;  Christ  the  friend  of,  51; 
daughters      of      the      regiment, 

51- 

Women,    Indolent,    rebuked,    175. 

Women,  Martyrdom  of,  218. 

Women,  Masculine,  rebuked,  10. 

Women,    Single,    defended,    204. 

Women  should  be  taught  self-sup- 
port,  229. 

Women,  Work,  good  for,  211;  re- 
munerative toilof,  honorable,  212; 
should  learn  self-support,  212; 
all  avenues  should  be  open  to, 


215;  entitled  to  equal  compen- 
sation with  men,  217;  should 
study  to  excel  in  work,  220; 
must  lean  on  God,  221. 

Women,  Zipporah,  a  lesson  to  self- 
supporting,  228. 

Work  a  blessing,  211;  good  for 
women,  211;  for  support  not 
dishonorable,   211. 

Work,   lowly.    Can    do    some,    246. 

Work,  special,  Discipline  prepara- 
tory to,    230. 

Work  suited  to  women,  44. 

Work  and  women,  211.  {See 
Women,  Work  Good.) 

Workers,  God  knows  where  to  find 
his,  237. 

Workers,  The  unknown,  recognized 
by  God,   278. 

World   a    great   hospital,    312. 

World,  poor  foundation  for  hope, 
112. 

World,  too  small  a  price  for  soul, 
161. 

World,  an  unsatisfactory  portion, 
112. 

World,  Unsatisfying  nature  of, 
112. 

Worldling,  Death  of,   19. 

Wounds   that   yield   pearls,   264. 

Wren,  Story  of  exalted,  289. 

Unfaithful  in  small,  means  un- 
faithful in  great,  125. 

Usefulness  only  ground  of  happi- 
ness, 95. 

Vacation,  Death  a,  386. 

Vere,  Sir  Horace,  Death  of 
brother,    from    idleness,    176. 

Veterans  entitled  to   honor,    282. 

Virginia,  West,   Scourge  in,   305. 

Volney,  an  American  woman's 
diet,   182. 

Vulture  and  dove,  Marriage  of,  40. 

Young  doctor,  Trouble  developed, 
168. 

Youth  not  the  happiest  time,  95; 
trials  of,  95. 

Zipporah  an  example  for  girls,  228. 

Zipporah  an  industrious  girl,  228. 


418 


VOL.   XI. 


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SELECTED   SERMONS 

BY 

T.   DE  WITT    TALMAGE 

TWENTY  VOLUMES  OF  SERMONIC 
LITERATURE  AGGREGATING  OVER 
EIGHT   THOUSAND    LARGE    PAGES 

DURABLY  BOUND  IN  CLOTH  AND  GOLD 
Price,  320  Per  Set 


Titles  of  Sermons  in  the  Twenty  Volumes 

VOLUME  L 


The  Astronomy  of  the  Bible 
The   Conchoixkjy   of   the    Bible 
The  Ornithology  of  the  Bible 
The  Ichthyology  of  the  Bible 
The  Pomology  of  the  Bible 
The  Botany  of  the  Bible 
The  Geology  of  the  Bible 
The  Sculpture  of  the  Bible 
The    Precious     Stones    of    the 

Bible 
The  Chronology  of  the  Bible 
The  Lightning  of  the  Sea 
The  Finger  of  God 
Rubies  Surpassed 


Parentage  of  the  Showxs 

The  Ear 

The  Eye 

The  Circle 

The  Snow 

Equipage  of  Cloud 

Pageantry  of  the  Woods 

The  Gardens  of  the  Sea 

Song  of  Birds 

Chant  at  the  Corner-stone 

Voices  of  Nature 

The  Mission  of  the  Frost 

Illumined  Clouds 


VOLUME  II. 


America  for  God 
From  Ocean  to  Ocean 
The  American  Sheaf 
Decoration  of  Graves 
Half  a  Planet 
Reservation  of  America 
Alleviations  of  War 
Politics  and  Religion 
The  Bride  of  Nations 
Before  They  Adjourn 
The  Nation's  Woe 
The  Nation  Kneeling 
Mightier  Dead  than  Alive 


Were  the  Prayers  for  Presikent 

Garfield  a   Failure? 
Epidemic  of  Strikes 
Last  Decade  of  the  Century 
A  Favored  Nation 
National  Ruin 
The  Times  We  Live  In 
Washington  for  God 
Moral  Character  of  Candidates 
The  Mission  of  the  Wheel 
Heroes  of  the  Navy 
Must  the  Chinese  G«? 
Two  Decades 
Settled  in  Heaven 


BVKRY  YOLUafB  SBPARATELV  INDEXED. 


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VOLUME  III. 


The  Gospel  of  Health 

Is  Life  Worth  Living? 

A  Delicate  Question 

EvERY-DAY  Religion 

Storming  the  Heights 

Three  Greatest  Things  to  Do 

Banners  Hoisted 

A  Helpful  Religion 

The  Upper  Forces 

A  Cavalry  Charge 

Onward! 

Beauty  and  Strength 

Triumph  All  the  Way 

Pillars  of  Smoke 


Surgery  Without  Pain 
The  Wide-open  Dook 
Aromatics  for  Easter 
Common  Sense  in  Religion 
The  Dangers  of  Pessimism 
Splendors  of  Orthodoxy 
Distribution  of  Rewards 
Ante-mortem  Religion 
A  Tight  Grip 
Struggle  and  Victory 
Gratitude  and  Hopefulness 
Alexander  H.  Stephens 
The  Sky  Anthem 


VOLUME  IV. 


Divine  Satire 
Infidelity  Answered 
The  Folly  of  Infidelity 
Captious  Criticism 
Meanness  of  Infidelity 
Slanders  Against  the  Bible 
Victory  for  God 
Christianity  as  a  Delusion 
The  Monarch  of  Books 
The  Guesses  of  Evolution 
Divine  Evolution 
Expurgation  of  tjie  Scriptures 
Revision  of  Creeds 
Abolition  of  Sunday 


The  Witness-stand 
The  Burning  Books 
Embarrassed  About  Religion 
The  Democracy  of  Religion 
The  Sun  Put  Out 
Thumbscrews  or  Toleration 
Live  Churches 
Opportunity 
Pulpit  and  Press 
The  Coming  Sermon 
The  Critic's  Doom 
Question  of  Questions 
Christ's    March    Through    the 
Centuries 


VOLUME  V. 


Gates  of  Carbuncle 

Burden-bearing 

Massacre  of  the  Innocents 

Martyrs  of  the  Kitchen 

Ministry  of  Tears 

The  Poor  Always 

Sour  Experiences 

One  Taking  Off 

The  Shut-in 

Suffering  for  Others 

Eastertide 

The  Deer  Hunt 

Dark  Sayings  on  a  Harp 

The  Cloudless  Morning 

The  Sun-struck  Child 


Why  are  Satan  and  Sin  Per- 
mitted? 

The  Royal  Exile 

The  Manger 

Wing  and  Hand 

Rocks  of  Trouble 

The  Lord's  Razor 

Wonders  of  Disaster  and  Bless- 
ing 

The  Hornet's  Mission 

Corn-husking  Time 

Decoration  of  the  Soul 

Evangelism  Vindicated 

The  Jordanic  Passage 


EVERY  VOLUME  SEPARATELY  INDEXED. 


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VOLUME  VI. 


Midnight     Exploration  :     First 

Night 
Midnight    Exploration  :    Second 

Night 
Midnight     Exploration:     Third 

Night 
Midnight   Exploration  :    Fourth 

Night 
Midnight     Exploration:     Fifth 

Night 
Midnight     Exploration:     Sixth 

Night 
Midnight  Exploration:  Seventh 

Night 
Ruinous  Company 
The  Plague  of  Narcotics 
The  Shears  of  Delilah 


The  Plague  of  Corrupt  Litera- 
ture 
The  Field  of  Blood 
Blasphemy 
The  Age  of  Swindle 
Spiritualism  an  Imposture 
The  Sin  of  Gossip 
Traps  for  Men 
Amusements 
Enemies  Overthrown 
Save  the  Cities 
The  Termini  of  Two  City  Roads 
Vice  of  Speech 
Words  with  Young  Men 
Words  with  Young  Women 
The  Crusade  of  Demons 


VOLUME  VIL 


The  Christ-land 
Second  Day   in    Palestine 
Jerusalem   the  Golden 
In  Stirrups  to  Jericho 
The  Dead  Sea  and  the  Jordan 
Hydraulics  in  Palestine 
Off  for  Nazareth 
Among  the  Bedouins 
Among  the  Holy  Hills 
Our  Sail  on  Lake  Galilee 
The  City  of  Damascus 
Across  Mojnt  Lebanon 
The  King's  Ferry-boat 


Machpelah  ;  or,  Easter  Thoughts 

A  Brooding  God 

Harp  and  Javelin 

RizPAH  on  the  Rocks 

Pilate's  Wash-basin 

Why  He  Said  it 

Harvest  Home 

The  Babe's  Escape 

The  Hero  of  the  Ages 

The  Assassination 

Points  of  Compass 

Nests  in  the  Cedar 

Windows  Toward  Jerusalem 


VOLUME  VIII. 


Marriage 

The  Choice  of  a  Wife 

The  Choice  of  a  Husband 

Clandestine  Marriage 

Conjugal  Harmony 

Duties  of  Husbands  to  Wives 

Duties  of  Wives  to  Husbands 

Have  a  Home 

Husbands  and  Wives 

Wifely  Ambition;  Good  and  Bad 

Parental  Mistakes 

The  Christian  Mother 

Sisters  and  Brothers 

Domestic  Life 


Which  Chusch? 

A  Filial  Tribute 

The  Bundle  of  Life 

Vashti  the  Queen 

Hadassah 

Hospitality 

Hagar  in  the  Wilderness 

A  Queen  in  Disguise 

Shamgar's  Ox-goad 

Sickness  in  the  Mansion 

Life-insurance  a  Duty 

Costume  and  Morals 

How  to  Make  Friends 


EVERY  VOLUME  SEPARATELY  INDEXED. 


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VOLUME  IX. 


The  Gospel  of  the  Pyramids 
Sailing  up  the  Nile 
Bricks  Without  Straw 
The  Gospel  Archipelago 
The  Temple  of  Diana 
The  Acropolis 
The  Colosseum 
Corn-crib  of  Egypt 
Destitution  in  Ireland 
A  Railway  Accident 
Narrow  Escapes 
Stormed  and  Takeit 
From  Dungeon  to  Palace 
The  Floral  Gospxl 


The  Sword:  its  Mission  and  its 

Doom 
Autumnal  Salutation 
The  Uses  of  Stratagem 
Stripping  the  Slain 
The  Tempest  Hushed 
Unoccupied  Fields 
Home   Again 
Self-slaughter 
The  Place  of  Thunder 
Rescue  of  a  King 
Sparrows  Divinely  Fed 
The  Midnight  Horseman 


VOLUME  X. 


The  Song  of  the  Drunkards 

The  Three  Taverns 

The  Midnight  Revel 

High  License,  the  Monopoly  of 

Abomination 
Summer  Temptations 
Safety  for  Young  Men 
Club-houses,  Good  and  Bad 
Amusements,  Good  and  Bad 
A  BiooDY  Monster 
A  Joyful  Sabbath 
Winter  and  How  to  Meet  it 
Forbidden  Honey 
Tbe  Hokse  and  His  Rider 


Divine  Mission  of  Art 

The  Fast  Young  Man 

A  Poor  Investment 

The  College  Student 

Hissed  Off  the  Stage 

The  Drunkard's  Woe 

Social  Dissipation 

What  Were  You  Made  For? 

Would     You     Live     Life     Oveb 

Again  ? 
The  Wrestlers 
Our  Own  Generation 
Cheer  for  the  Disheartened 
Master  of  the  Situation 


VOLUME  XI. 


Dominion  of  Fashion 
The  Old  Homestead 
Women  of  America 
Worldly  Marriages 
The  First  Woman 
The  Queens  of  Home 
Woman's  Happiness 
A  Wedding  Present 
Harbor  of  Home 
Treatment  of  Parents 
Orpah's  Retreat 
The  Beautiful  Gleaner 
The  Grandmother 
The  Old  Folks'  Visit 


Martyrs  of  the  Needle 

The  Sheik's  Daughter 

Spiders  in  Palaces 

A  Motherly  God 

Garrison  Duty 

The  Battle  for  Bread 

Heavy  Loads 

Isaac  Rescued 

Pain 

Where's  Mother? 

Homesickness 

Contentment 

Reminiscences 


EVERY  VOLUME  SEPARATELY  INDEXED. 


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VOLUME  xn. 


The  Stak  Wobmwood 

Poison 

suffeking 

The  Swelling  of  Jordan 

Contrary  Winds 

Exasperating  Comforters 

Crooked  Things 

The  Dumb  Devil 

Superfluities  a  Hindrance 

The  Decorated  Grave 

Thanksgiving  Day 

Jehu,  the  Swift  Driver 

Jealousy 

Threshed  Ovt 


Ham  AN  Hanged 

The  Pouting  Son 

A  Dead  Lion 

A  King  Eating  Grass 

A  Snowy  Day 

The  Bare  Arm  of  God 

A  Righteous  Judge 

The  Broken  Pitchers 

Return  from  the  Chase 

Brawn  and  Muscle 

Welcome  and  Dismissal 

The  Lachrymatory 

The  Doxologies 


VOLUME  xni. 


Recognition  in  Heaven 
The  Kiss  of  Welcome 
Heavenly  Congratulations 
Rewards  for  the  Dull 
The  Coming  Glory 
Corn  in  Place  of  Manna 
Employments  of  Heaven 
New  Lessons 
Divine  Chirography 
A  Brilliant  Religion 
The  Heavens  Opened 
The  King's  Highway 
Posthumous  Opportunity 
Thk  Vacant  Chair 


Surprises  of  Religion 

Fountains  Purified 

On  Trial 

Concerning  Bigots 

Mending  Nets 

The  Heart 

The  Human  Face 

Organ  Dedication 

The  East  Wind 

The  Oriental  Wedding 

The  Panacea 

Blessings  of  Short  Life 

Thirty  Minutes  in  Heavxn 


VOLUME   XIV. 


The  Sun-dial  of  Ahaz 

The  Dying  Century 

The  Noontide  of  Life 

The  Nation's  Opportunity 

The  Sword  Sheathed  in  Flowers 

Expansion 

A  New  Census 

The  Day  Dawn 

The  Queen  of  Festivals 

Sunset 

The  World's  Fair 

May-day  Reflections 

The  Sinking  Stkamek 

Heredity 

Rulers 


Despotism  of  Politics 

The  Presidency 

The  Ballot-box 

The  Balance-sheet 

The  Number  Seven 

Disabled  Hunters 

Peter  Cooper,  the  Philantrko- 

PIST 

Foes  of  Society 
A  Bright  Evening 
Cradle  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury 
Wonders  of  the  Hand 
A  New  Year's  Discourse 


BVBRY  VOLVMB  SEPARATELY  INDEXED. 


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VOLXTME  XV. 


The  Ivory  Palaces 
A  Seraphic  Diet 
Improvements  in  Heaven 
Twelve  Entrances 
A  Supernal  Garden 
A  Glorious  Rest 
Human  Constellations 
Music  in  Heaven 
The  Glorious  Christ 
The  Go-between 
Magnetism  of  Christ 
The  Good  Shepherd 
The  Perfect  Example 
The  House  on  the  Hills 
Snowy  Locks  of  Christ 


Is  He  Only  a  Man? 
The  Bird  Anthem 
"  What  is  in  a  Name?  " 
An  Only  Son 
The  Three  Crosses 
Henry  W.  Grady 
Music  in  Worship 
The  Pleiades  and  Orion 
The  Scarlet  Rope 
The  Capstone 
The  Unpardonable  Sin 
Hard  Rowing 

A   Tale  Told;   or,   the   Passzno 
Years 


VOLUME  XVI. 


Martyrdom  at  Lucknow 

The  City  of  Blood 

Cremation 

The  Better  Heathenism 

Palaces  of  India 

Tomb  and  Temple 

Isle  of  Palm 

Hunger  in  India 

Sympathy  for  the  Greeks 

Victoria's  Jubilee 

International  Defamation 

The  Cry  of  Armenia 

The  Dumb  Prayer  Answered 


The  Arctic  Martyrs 
A  Summer-house  Tragedy 
Cloaks  for  Sin 
Good  Game  Wasted 
The  Stolen  Grindstones 
The  Precious  Christ 
A  Tearful  Conflagration 
Arousing  Considerations 
Sensitiveness  of  Christ 
A  Scroll  of  Heroes 
The  Spicery  of  Religion 
The  Echoes 
Religious  Journalism 


VOLUME  XVII. 


Literature  of  the  Dust 

Dreams 

The  Voices  of  the  Street 

Forgiveness  Before  Sundown 

The  Great  Editor 

Broken   Pieces  of  the  Ship 

A  Craze  of  the  Times 

Business  Troubles 

Benediction  for  Doctors 

Lawyers 

Behind  the  Counter 

Buyers  and  Sellers 

A  Hard  Life 

Employers  and  Employees 


Labor  and  Capital 

Doings  in  Wall  Street 

Profit  and  Loss 

Plagiarism 

Business  Life 

Prayer  for  Rulers 

Slaughter  of  Young  Men 

How  to  Treat  Company 

The  Golden  Calf 

The  Broken  Net;  or.  Objections 

TO  Revivals 
The  Cold 
My  Creed 


EVERY  VOLUME  SEPARATELY  IBTDEXED. 


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V0LT7ME  XVin. 


Angblologt 
Silver  Wings 
Next  to  the  Thkonz 
Divinity  Impovekisued 
The  Six  Wings 
One  Week's  Work 
Christ  the  Song 
Reenforcement 
Satan  on  His  Travels 
The  Generations 
The  Strong  Swimmer 
The  Art  of  Forgetting 
The  Star 


Hunting  for  Souls 

The  Laughter  of  the  Bible 

A  Broad  Gospel 

Gospel  Alkali 

Paul  in  a  Basket 

A  Sea  Hurricane 

A  Leader  Fallen 

An  Obnoxious  Diet 

A  Momentous  Quest 

The  Giant's  Bedstead 

Unsafe  Life-boats 

Shams  in  Religion 

Insomnia 


VOLUME  XIX. 


A  Passion  for  Sootj 

The  Glorious  Gospel 

The  Saving  Look 

The  Ransomed 

The  Judgment 

The  Publican's  Prayxb 

Kind  Compulsion 

Sprinkled  and  Cleansed 

What  to  Do  with  Jesus 

Mighty  Awakening 

Astray:  How  to  Get  Back 

Lost  Sheep 

Come 

The  Gospel  Looking-glass 


The  World  Insufficient 
Ordinary  People 
The  Fatal  Line 
Plumb-line  Religion 
The  Chain  of  Influence 
The  Grand  Review 
The  Drowned  Lads 
Say  So 

The  Busybody 
Full  Chalices 
Armageddon 

The  New  Earth;  or,  the  World 
AS  it  Will  Be 


VOLUME  XX. 


Sklah 

Shadows  and   Sunshine  on   the 

Cradle 
Broken  Promises  of  Marriage 


The  Dramatic  Element 

Two  Thousandth  Publication 

Visions  of  Heaven 


VOLUME  XX.  also  contains  COMPLETE   INDEXES  of 
the  twenty  volumes  as  ONE  WORK. 

1.  Index  of  Texts  of  Sermons  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  Books 

of  the  Bible  and  embracing  the  entire  twenty  volumes. 

2.  Index  of  Titles  of  Sermons  with  numerous  cross-references  and 

texts  of  sermons   arranged  in  alphabetical   order  and   embracing  the 
entire  twenty  volumes. 

3.  Index  of  Anecdotal  and  Historical  illustrations  through- 

out the  entire  twenty  volumes. 

4.  Index  of  all  Important  Subjects,  numbering  many  thousands, 

with  general  scope  of  treatment  where  enlarged  upon,  and  covering 
the  entire  series  of  twenty  volumes. 


EVERY  VOLUME  SEPARATELY  INDEXED. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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